Brands
CMJ Breweries launches authentic German beer brand ‘Kaltenberg’ in India
MUMBAI: CMJ Breweries in association with Konig Ludwig International is introducing the authentic German beer “Kaltenberg” in India. As a part of the licensing agreement CMJ breweries Private Ltd. will manufacture and distribute the highly famous premium brand Pan India. The first beer to be launched through this association will be Kaltenberg Royal Lager and it will be followed by Kaltenberg Royal Strong in the next few months. The beer will be positioned higher than the other premium beer much lower than imported ones. The product will be available across 1,000 outlets over the next few months in Maharashtra, Goa, Daman, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Kaltenberg will be brewed at its state of art CMJ brewery in Meghalaya aptly known as Scotland of the east. Only those breweries are allowed to brew Kaltenberg beers which guarantee compliance of all Royal Bavarian brewing standards and specification and CMJ brewery is one of them. The fully automated green field brewery has been set up at Byrnihat with a cost of about Rs 125 crores. CMJ brewery has also set up 100 KLPD state of art grain based Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) Plant at Byrnihat with and investment of Rs250 Crores. The ingredients for this beer come all the way from Germany and are produced as per German purity laws which are strictest all over the world.
Commenting on the same Mr.Rohit Jain, Chairman, CMJ Breweries said that, “We are extremely delighted to introduce one of the World’s oldest beer brand to the beer connoisseurs in India. Brewed under the German Purity Law, this will be India’s first super premium beer available at half the price of an imported beer in India. Through launch of this brand, we aim to capture about one-two per cent of the premium beer market in India in next 3-5 years.”
Konig Ludwig International is controlled and managed by HRH Prinz Luitpold von Bayern. He is a member of the Royal family of Bavaria. All beers from Kaltenberg Castle are brewed under the strict quality control of HRH Prinz Luitpold von Bayern and his technical team as per the Bavarian Purity Law which has been issued by one of his ancestors in the year 1516.
Their expertise in the brewing business can be traced back to 1260 making Kaltenberg, possibly, the oldest beer brand in the world. Over almost 800 centuries they have set such important milestones as the Purity Law of 1516, the wheat beer monopoly, the foundation of the Brewing University at Freising, the beer garden edict and the world famous Oktoberfest.
The brand name Kaltenberg originates from its birth place in the Kaltenberg Castle, where beer has been brewed since 1871, and is still a Royal residence. It is the most sold international brand in the Royal Bavarian portfolio. This legacy is an integral element of Kaltenberg beers. The brewing know-how, quality and brand management have been developed and fine-tuned over the centuries. This quality performance is evidenced by regular success in international beer competitions and quality evaluations, such as the DLG, WBA and European Beer Star. Konig Ludwig International has license partners in over 10 markets. Where-ever the beers are locally produced, it has proven the capability to replicate world-wide the same high standard in quality, taste and brand positioning.
CMJ Brewery had launched three of its own brands in north east in March 2013. The brands are manufactured under the German technical know-how from Konig Ludwig International. All the three brands namely Magpie Premium Lager Beer, Savage Super Strong Beer & Nutcracker Premium Strong Beer received an over whelming response from the consumers in the North East Region.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
