The campaign is being rolled out through point-of-purchase material at the company's over 40,000 retail outlets this week.

It may be recalled that as a rebuttal to UB Group's (through its flagship McDowell & Company) bid for SWC's three brands-Royal Challenge, Director's Special and Haywards-for Rs 250 crore, the latter had launched a campaign positioning its brands as `India's Most Wanted' on October 7, 1999.

Now, carrying the fight forward, SWC has launched a new series which includes three colour posters. Each carries visuals of Director's Special and Royal Challenge bottles and some hard-hitting copy sniping at the bid.Savour the catch-phrases: `Some work hard and succeed. Others try to buy it.'; `India's most wanted. Even - would love to own them!'; `Competitor's envy. Owner's pride. Those who cannot create success want to own them!'

Earlier, in October, the campaign hit out at the UB Group by saying: `Even enemies would want to own them - Royal Challenge'; `Shaw Wallace's pride, competitor's envy. Those who can't create them want to steal them'.

The UB Group's offer has been made through the Calcutta High Court and is supported by some of the SWC's largest creditors. SWC has said that its brands are not for sale and that McDowell & Co had no locus standi to present a bid for the three brands.

SWC's three brands are in a dominant position: while Royal Challenge has a 70 per cent market share, Director's Special Whiskey, SWC's flagship brand in the prestige whiskey segment has attained a growth of 100 per cent and sells more than a million cases a year. Haywards 5000, is the largest strong beer brand, recording sales of around 10 million cases in 1998-99, up from 0.9 million cases in 1993-94. The next hearing for McDowell's proposal to take over the three brands has been postponed by the Calcutta High Court to January 10, 2000 from the scheduled December 14, 1999.