Cobra and Kingfisher are at loggerheads over which of the two is king of the Indian beer castle. The row broke out when Kingfisher objected to Cobra's audited figures for the year ended July 31 showing it increased sales by 52%, and its growth rate per year over the last three years was 69%. Kingfisher said it checked Cobra's annual report and sales grew by just 3% on a turnover of £4.3m. A source said: "Cobra is making outrageous claims which don't stack up." Kingfisher claims its own annual growth of almost 15% on sales of over £7m is five times that of Cobra's. Karan Bilimoria, md and founder of Cobra, said: "We see Kingfisher as beer colleagues rather than rivals so I was surprised about this." He said Kingfisher's findings were based on its out of date 1998/9 report, and Cobra's turnover was now £6.6m. He claimed that Cobra had overtaken Kingfisher on bottles four years ago and might be overall leader in six months' time. Brian Dozey, marketing director of Kingfisher distributors UBSN, said: "Kingfisher remains the preferred choice, despite the emergence of me- too brands which aren't even on sale in India." A second phase of an ad campaign from Cobra featuring Curryholic Dave will be on screens until December. {{DRINKS }}

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