Shares of Som Distilleries and Breweries rose 4.5% in early trade on April 19 as its wholly-owned subsidiary Woodpecker Distilleries and Breweries Private (Woodpecker) began commercial beer production. Shares of Som Distilleries closed 4% higher at Rs 165.85 on the National Stock Exchange at 9:45 am.

“We are now pleased to announce that commercial production has commenced at our expanded capacity in Hassan, Karnataka. This will lead to better availability of our products at all distribution points in the relevant markets,” the company told the exchange.

Since the start of 2023, the stock has returned 40.25%, outperforming the Sensex, which returned 3.1% over the same period.

The stock has underperformed Nifty after returning 22.44% over the past five years, compared with the benchmark’s return of 66.89% over the same period.