very good evening everyone and thank you for joining this call at such a notice. I don't know, but I think some of you may have already picked up that we have sent an intimation to the stock exchange earlier in the day to day stating that USL is initiating a strategic review of select popular brands. This evaluation is in continuation of the strategy towards long term profitable growth through premiumization of the company's portfolio. Now our popular portfolio comprises around 30 brands and the strategic review will focus on approximately half of this portfolio by volume. This review will not include the McDowell or the Director's special trademarks and any variance that come within those.
The review is expected to be completed by the end of 2021 calendar year. Several outcomes are possible, including but not limited to extension of the franchise model that we started some years ago, accelerating select brands via additional investment, potential divestment and an organizational review of our operating model. The strategic review will assess all options considering the potential impact of each approach. This review reinforces USL and Diageo's commitment to deliver sustainable long term growth and improved profitability through a sharpened focus on core popular and prestige and above brands, including our international brand. Since its acquisition by Diageo in 2013, USL has been focused on delivering long term profitable growth through premiumization of the portfolio.
USL has made significant progress on multiple fronts, including rationalization of the portfolio with focus on select brands and renovation of some specific brands in the P and A segment, which include McDonald's No. 1 and Royal Challenge to name a few. We've increased the faster growing P and A segment from 1 third of our business to over 2 thirds of our business now. We've improved operating margins from single digits to mid teen with a medium term goal of mid to high teens. And I think critically, we have transformed governance of the business and played our role in changing the reputation of the industry and how business is done in this sector.
Given the called out focus on the P and A segment over the years, we have been putting place a fit for purpose model to manage our popular portfolio. So the current operating model allows us to extract value from our popular portfolio, while at the same time releasing resources, the most important of which is management time, which can be redeployed towards P and A. Now Popular is largely managed separately with several large states operating on a franchise model, where our franchise partners manufacture and sell the popular brand. In a few select large states, we do manage the popular business ourselves. Earlier this year, we set up a separate popular SBU to enable a more focused joint sub business planning process along with our franchise business partners, while enhancing emphasis on some of the retained states.
In continuation of this strategy, we are now carrying out a strategic review of select brands in our popular portfolio to evaluate our next stage strategic choices, so that we continue to maximize value for all our stakeholders. This review, as you would agree, is a logical next step in our journey towards sustained long term profitable growth. So to put it simply, many of you know that over these years, we are focused on growing P and A aggressively, while extracting value from the popular portfolio. And that's why P and A as a share of the mix has only been increasing. So sitting where we're sitting today, we're looking ahead and saying, what should our future strategy be?
And that is the purpose of this strategic review. This review is importantly supported by Diageo Plc. And as you know, Diageo have always been clear that the acquisition of a controlling stake in USL was a long term investment. India remains a highly attractive market for Diageo and Diageo believes that USL will be a significant source of value over time. So net net, in conclusion, I just want to reiterate that the goal of this strategic review is to ensure we have the right platform in place to build on USL's transformation to date and go further in delivering long term profitable growth.
The purpose of this call is to make sure that as we embark on this journey, we share this information in all transparency with all critical stakeholders like you. Today, we are not opening this call for Q and A because, I mean, honestly, we have nothing more to say at this stage because we do not know what the outcome of this strategic review is going to be. The review has obviously not been completed and therefore no decisions have yet been made. Please be rest assured that when and if there are relevant updates, we will communicate these to you in as timely a manner as possible. Thank you again for joining this call at short notice and I thank you for your interest in United Spirit.
Thank you and have a good evening. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. On behalf of United Spirits Limited, that concludes this call. Thank you for joining