Kathmandu, March 3

Liquor outlets have stated they will not sell products of Johnnie Walker, a famous Scotch whisky brand, if its sole authorised distributor fails to compensate them for the losses they incurred due to breakage of whisky bottles during the 2015 earthquake.

Citing that liquor outlets have incurred losses worth millions owing to the breakage of thousands of whisky bottles of the Johnnie Walker brand, Kathmandu Liquor Entrepreneurs’ Association (KLEA) today threatened not to sell liquor products of the brand unless the entrepreneurs are compensated for the concerned losses.

Johnnie Walker’s whisky products like Red Label, Black Label, Blue Label, Double Black and VAT 69, among others are available in the domestic market.

These Scotch whiskies are popular among liquor consumers in Nepal.

“Liquor entrepreneurs have faced losses amounting to millions due to the breakage of bottles of the Scotch whisky brand during the earthquake in 2015.

Though other liquor brands are providing the exchange facility for such breakage, Johnnie Walker has refused to do so,” said Sonam Sherpa, president of KLEA. “Liquor outlets across the Kathmandu Valley will stop selling any products of the Scotch whisky brand if its manufacturer fails to compensate them.”

As per Sherpa, almost 60,000 cases of the Scotch whisky, amounting to more than Rs five million were damaged in the 2015 earthquake. As per him, KLEA is currently collecting the actual detail of the loss and the number of bottles that were damaged from different liquor outlets in the Valley.

“We will submit the details of the loss incurred by the outlets to Johnnie Walker’s local distributor within a few days,” added Sherpa.

Meanwhile, the sole authorised distributor of Johnnie Walker whisky in Nepal — Global Trading Concern — has said that it is not in a position to compensate liquor entrepreneurs unless the producer of the Scotch whisky allows it to do so.

“We will send the details of the concerns raised by liquor entrepreneurs to Johnnie Walker Singapore.

We will act as per the advice from the Singapore-based office of the Scotch whisky,” said Baburam Gautam, regional manager of Johnnie Walker.