(September 19, 2025) Did you know V21, India’s first premium vodka in a 100 percent recycled-plastic (rPET) bottle, is crafted in Indore? Relaunched this year, it turns discarded bottles into new ones, proving waste can have a second life. Smooth, silver-filtered, and distilled from 100 percent grain-neutral spirit, V21 is living proof that sustainability and top-shelf quality go hand in hand. Behind this green initiative is Utsav Kedia, Vice President, Business Growth at Great Galleon Ventures Limited (GGVL). He is steering his family’s 50-year-old legacy in the alcoholic beverages industry toward a new era where heritage and responsibility go hand in hand.
What makes the new product extraordinary is not simply the novelty of its packaging but the scale of its measurable impact. Each production cycle of V21’s rPET bottles conserves 5.7 million litres of water, enough to meet the daily hydration needs of an entire city the size of Indore. It saves 3.8 million megajoules of energy, equivalent to keeping Chandigarh illuminated for a day. It cuts 140 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, comparable to the oxygen output of nearly three million trees, while also reducing solid waste by 42 percent. From Kedia’s perspective, these are not merely statistics but proof that innovation in the alcoholic beverages industry can be meaningful, scalable, and transformative. “For me, V21 isn’t just a product milestone; it’s a blueprint for the future,” he tells Global Indian.
Utsav Kedia
All in the family
Utsav Kedia’s vision for GGVL is shaped by the family he grew up in, where business was part of daily life. Yet his parents insisted he first step out to see the world differently. That journey took him abroad for an MBA at INSEAD, an experience he calls life-changing. Sitting in classrooms with people from 80 nationalities, each with their own context and approach, he realised there was no single “right” way to build something meaningful. “Context matters. People matter. That perspective is what I try to bring into GGVL today — balancing our 50-year-old legacy with the need to stay agile, relevant, and engineered for tomorrow,” he reflects.
From Dhar to global partnerships
The Kedia family’s contribution to Indian spirits began in 1969, in the quiet town of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. There, they built a distillery that would go on to shape the architecture of the modern industry. Long before liberalisation, before Indian spirits had international recognition, GGVL was introducing branded IMFL to the market, manufacturing bottles for some of the world’s most exacting spirit houses, and working with policymakers to reform retail practices in the state.
Photo Credit: Great Galleon Ventures Limited
Today, the distillery stands as Madhya Pradesh’s largest private facility, operating on a zero-waste model. Its bottling lines are trusted by global giants such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Amrut, and Beam Suntory. The company’s reputation is built on being technical, rigorous, and consistent — delivering craft at scale. And even while partnering with international names, GGVL is also building its own portfolio of contemporary Indian spirits that combine strong design, cultural relevance, and a clear sustainability charter.
The company’s journey has always been about raising standards in India. They were among the first to shift from molasses to grain and to build a zero-waste distillery, moves that reflected both innovation and responsibility. It has remained independent, grown responsibly, and continued to shape the industry without losing sight of where it all began.
Building ahead with the Bold Planet Charter
As the third generation of his family to lead the business, Utsav Kedia admits that the weight of legacy is real. Yet he sees it not as pressure but as purpose. His answer to the question of how to carry the company forward has been the Bold Planet Charter, a sustainability-driven framework that informs every decision. It was this charter that guided GGVL in pioneering the move from molasses-based to grain-based ENA manufacturing, establishing a zero-discharge distillery, and most recently, relaunching V21 in its 100 percent rPET avatar.
For Kedia, this approach ensures that GGVL is not just continuing a family enterprise but engineering a business that is future-ready, creating spirits that are proudly Indian, globally benchmarked, and designed to honour both craft and planet.
Spirit forward
Beyond its purity and smoothness, V21 Vodka, which is silver-filtered and made with 100 percent grain-neutral alcohol, stands out due to its packaging. By choosing rPET over traditional glass or virgin plastic, GGVL has made sustainability inseparable from the identity of a premium product.
Photo Credit: Great Galleon Ventures Limited
This trust in innovation is backed by decades of collaborations with some of the world’s most demanding spirit houses. GGVL has supplied ENA to Diageo and Pernod Ricard, engaged in contract manufacturing with Beam Suntory, and partnered with Amrut Distilleries. Their expertise spans ethanol and ENA distillation, premium IMFL bottling, and fully automated PET bottle manufacturing, all at their zero-waste facility in Madhya Pradesh. Precision and traceability are ensured by Japanese ASB lines, and everything the company produces is compliant with FSSAI, BIS, and EPR norms. Today, the reach of their bottles extends beyond India to Oman, Singapore, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, and Freetown.
Overcoming challenges
The journey to relaunch V21 in a 100 percent rPET bottle came with its own set of challenges. The first was sourcing — finding recycled plastic from trusted manufacturers that met all compliance benchmarks. The second was design — rPET is harder than virgin PET and naturally carries a dull grey tint, hardly the look of a premium product. It took months of experimenting with moulds, refining designs, and testing colours before the team achieved a clean, pure white bottle that looked elevated rather than compromised. Since then, they have expanded into shades like brown and blue.
Inspiration and the road ahead
For Utsav Kedia, inspiration lies within his family. His grandfather built the business in a time when resources were scarce, yet he never let constraints hinder ambition. His father carried that spirit forward with resilience, discipline, and a deep sense of responsibility towards people and processes. From them, Utsav Kedia has inherited the ability to think ahead, to look beyond immediate challenges and ask, “What will this mean tomorrow?”
The relaunch of the 180 ml rPET V21 bottle this year is just the beginning. The next step is scaling this innovation to a 750 ml format, a leap that will bring new challenges in strength, design, and consumer perception. But Kedia is confident this is precisely the kind of bold step that can reset industry benchmarks. Beyond packaging, he is committed to deepening the Bold Planet Charter, ensuring that every choice, from material sourcing to manufacturing brings GGVL closer to a truly circular model.
Photo Credit: Great Galleon Ventures Limited
From a modest distillery in a small Madhya Pradesh town to a company rewriting global standards, the venture of Kedias has travelled far. With the third generation entrepreneur Utsav Kedia at the helm, Great Galleon Ventures Limited is proving that Indian spirits can be both premium and responsible, blending heritage with foresight, craft with sustainability, and tradition with bold new beginnings.
- Follow Utsav Kedia on LinkedIn
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