Bengaluru-based The Good Craft Co. Flavour Lab, an initiative by Diageo India is designed to serve as an experimental boot camp for aspiring alco-bev start-ups. In a recent conversation with Businessline, Vikram Damodaran, Chief Innovation Officer at Diageo India, discussed the mission behind The Good Craft Co., which launched on September 21, 2024.
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Damodaran explained that the lab’s goal is to elevate Indian craft spirits to the global stage. “The Good Craft Co. is a venture conceived to create an amplification platform to put Indian craft spirits on the global map. This is important because India has a strong and rich culture, heritage, and diversity of distillation techniques and processes which build styles characteristic of every region in the country,” he shared.
Established in 2022, The Good Craft Co. aims to cultivate a robust start-up ecosystem within India’s spirits industry. According to Damodaran, this initiative marks Diageo India’s first global effort to develop a direct-to-consumer (DTC) experiential ecosystem. The goal is to educate, advocate for, and celebrate craft spirits and their makers.
In discussing Diageo’s broader strategy, Damodaran pointed to the company’s focus on producing high-quality, artisanal spirits, highlighting recent successes such as the Godawan single malt. “We want to create spirits of exceptional value and artisanship… but it’s not just about producing organic craft spirits; it’s about investing in the ecosystem itself,” he emphasized. Diageo India has also been involved in nurturing the industry through its Ponda Distillery in Goa, where it has built a 6KLPD distillery with 25,000 casks in maturation, reviving the distillery in 2017.
The company has launched a number of craft spirits over the last three years, including the collector’s edition Epitome Reserve and the artisanal Godawan single malt from Rajasthan. Diageo Ventures, their investment wing for alco-bev start-ups, has also invested in several prominent brands, including NAO Spirits (makers of Greater Than and Hāpusa Indian Gin), Maya Pistola Agavepura (creators of Pistola agave spirit), V9 Beverages (zero-alcohol spirit distiller), and Indie Brew and Spirits (producers of cold-brew coffee liqueur). These investments allow brands access to Diageo’s lab facilities for innovation, research, and development.
Damodaran also highlighted Diageo’s commitment to supporting the alco-bev ecosystem, even for companies that haven’t received direct investment. “These companies often approach us early on in their product development lifecycle,” he noted, explaining how Diageo provides feedback on sensory performance and process adjustments to refine products.
He elaborated on the benefits for startups working with Diageo India, particularly the access to resources like capital and intellectual infrastructure. “Commercializing a product is expensive. A startup needs to focus on ROI rather than building infrastructure for research. A facility like this provides them with a one-stop shop, where they can, for example, run chromatography experiments and get results within 24 hours.”
Damodaran described The Good Craft Co. Flavour Lab as functioning like an incubator or accelerator, but without requiring startups to pay for access. It will work with various stakeholders in the industry, including startups, fermenters, consumers, and mixologists.
The facility offers four key engagement zones: an Academy showcasing distillation processes; Diageo India’s R&D labs, such as the Separation, Incubation, and Molecular Lab; a bar & fermentary where visitors can sample unreleased spirits; and the Flavour Lab’s vault of aged, dark spirits.
Meanwhile, The Good Craft Co. Experience Home & Flavour Market, set to open in December 2025 in Goa’s Ponda Distillery, will offer visitors an immersive journey into the world of craft spirits. The space will feature a distillery tour, microbrewery experiences, artisanal processes, and collaborations with both Indian and global spirit makers, alongside curated tasting sessions.
