Calcutta, Aug. 7: The United Breweries group has appointed Accenture to work out a consolidation of its spirits companies, including Shaw Wallace and Company, to cut costs.

Shaw Wallace Distilleries Limited president A.K.M.A. Shamsuddin said, “The firm has already held meetings at the four zonal levels and is currently finalising the whole process at the headquarters.”

The final report will be submitted in a couple of months, after which the management will take the final decision.

The report will have the necessary restructuring details of the human resource, marketing, manufacturing, operational and sourcing functions, said Shamsuddin.

“We are happy with the direction of the study and firmly believe that it will identify all the synergies existing among the entities,” he said. At present, both the companies are functioning independently.

The recommendations of the report could result in phasing out cannibalising brands. For instance, there is a potential conflict between Shaw Wallace’s Royal Challenge and McDowell’s Signature whiskies in the premium segment or between White Mischief and Romanov vodkas in the regular-priced segment.

In March 2005, McDowell and Company, the flagship of the group, acquired 54.54 per cent of Shaw Wallace and Company for Rs 1,300 crore. Earlier, UB group chief Vijay Mallya had uncorked a Rs 1,251-crore bid in response to the Chhabria family’s sale offer for Shaw Wallace's distillery division. Sensing that his offer was not welcome, Mallya made an open offer for 25 per cent of Shaw Wallace valued at Rs 300 crore in February 2005.

The deal catapulted the UB group to the second place among global spirits companies with annual sales of approximately 60 million cases, a distant second to world leader Diageo.