Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/128596
Lunazul, from Heaven Hill Distilleries, is another 100% agave product line with approachable pricing. chants are responding strongly to the newly launched Hornitos Lime Shots, a 70 proof product with natural lime flavors with a suggested retail of $17.99 for a 750 ml. Besides the brand's new packaging, Beam is partnering with Playboy for a series of in-store promotions and sweepstakes, culminating in invitations to attend celebrations at the iconic Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Patron's Halo Effect F rom its modest launch in 1989 to today, Patron Tequila has ushered in a remarkable series of changes in how tequila is perceived, in the trade and with the public. In this journey to now the country's second largest tequila brand, Greg Cohen, spokesperson for Patron, says, "Education has always played a very large role in our efforts and still continues." Nevertheless, Cohen adds, "We still battle poor perceptions of tequila in some quarters, but we hit a milestone in 2012 when we hit two million cases sales." Acknowledging the above-premium tequila segment is getting more crowded, Cohen observes, "We have seen numerous brands come into this segment. We are proud of the fact of widening the entire tequila category." Certainly, Avion's rapid acceptance and growth is in part due to Patron's success. Jenna Fagnan, president of Tequila Avion, says of the original impulse to market the brand, "Ken Austin, our founder, and our team looked at consumer trends, and a product based on quality and authenticity, also required a lifestyle component, so we saw a huge opportunity for a No. 2 ultrapremium Tequila." Its success is a big reason why Avion and Pernod-Ricard USA decided to partner in July 2011, says Fagnan, a development which – given Pernod's distribution clout combined with the turbo-charged endorsement of the brand thanks to its prominence in the "Entourage" television show – lifted Avion to a hot, trendy status other marketers could only envy. In 2013, Fagnan reports that Avion will boost its consumer and trade support across all channels and is still expanding and growing at strong double-digit rates. "Here in the U.S., we're seeing a natural The new high-end Casamigos Tequila, from Serralles USA. trend toward premiumization," says Jesus Ostos, BrownForman's Brand Manager for the seventh-ranked El Jimador Tequila, which is, Ostos is quick and proud to point out, the number-one selling brand in Mexico. Citing company research, brands priced in the retail range of $20-$40 a 750 ml bottle are selling the fastest at present. With the brand's marketing aimed at legal age to 29, the brand is aggressively backing its partnership with sports, specifically soccer, with both U.S.-related and Mexico-accented promotions and sweepstakes. With all this growth, celebrities with a taste for tequila's pleasure have also gotten into the act. Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo, marketed by Campari USA, has been in the marketplace for sevEl Jimidor has eral years, and now there's the launched another newly released Casamigos set of soccerrelated bottles. Tequila, launched by George Clooney, Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman, with a Blanco ($42.99 suggested retail) and Reposado ($49.99). The new brand is being handled by Serralles USA. One of the more interesting entrepreneurial efforts at the ultra-premium end of the tequila market is that undertaken by Jacob Lustig, national sales manager of Haas Brothers, a San Franciscobased spirits merchant. Lustig, a long-time tequila and mexcal expert, launched Seleccion de Artenom T equila, unique in that it is the only brand certified by the Mexican government and tequila regulators as available from three different estates. The trio of estate-bottled tequila's all come from higher elevations, where the agave plant is stressed to send down its roots deeper and deeper to capture nutrients and water. This effort yields a richer, more flavorful agave fruit, which in turn adds more complex flavors to the resulting spirit. As Lustig says, "The Cazadores, the more you stress your agave, superpremiumthe higher levels of fruit-dri- priced tequila line from Bacardi USA, ven flavors you'll have." From lively bars where gained another 5.3% last year, for shots and frosty Margaritas sales of just under rule to colourful floor dis- 300,000 cases plays of Cuervo or Patron at nationally. the nation's chain and independent retailers to high-end artisanal tequilas now widely available off- and on-premise, tequila is alive and thriving. Indeed, thanks to plentiful supplies of agave, strong innovation by tequila marketers large and small, and all turbocharged by growing consumer interest in aged reposado and añejo bottlings, exciting flavors and imaginative line extensions, tequila aficionados never had it so good. I Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • May/June 2013 • 41