The additional investments in R&D has been necessitated as a result of the onslaught from a string of multinational liquor companies, which have now begun to make forays in the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) segment.

Managing director Ravi Jain said: "Worldwide, quality and consistency have been identified as the two most cherished attributes of spirit brands. Hence, Shaw Wallace needed to invest in R&D for continued leadership."

Some of the activities to be taken up by the R&D centre include standardising and monitoring the raw material and blends for product consistency, development of new high-yielding yeast strains and development of new blends, malt maturation and analysing new products introduced in the market. During the year ended June 30, 1998, ShawWallace achieved a 20 per cent growth over 1996-97 with a sales volume of 2.8-lakh cases.