World Whiskies Brand Champions 2013

 WORLD WHISKY BRAND CHAMPION: JIM BEAM

We could have chosen several Brand Champions for our World Whisky category, that was the extent to which we were impressed by its accomplishments last year. Last year’s headline brand Jameson continued its success streak with 8% growth, which although had slowed by more than half since 2011, swept the leading Irish whiskey past the four millioncase barrier.

For now it continues to be the only Irish whiskey selling over a million cases and thus making this list, but with more brands entering the market in the next three years, and the work Beam is doing to promote Kilbeggan in the US – where Irish whiskey is growing at a rate of 21.6% – things may change very soon.

It’s unlikely, however, that Jameson’s impressive lead will be matched in the near future. Moving onto the American whiskeys, which as a category is enjoying global growth in markets like Australia, Germany, the UK and of course the US, we were struck by the innovation of the big brands to retain consumer interest in their portfolio.

Campari’s decision to add a splash of honey to its Bourbon was one made with huge foresight, and although it had not reaped the benefits when Wild Turkey American Honey was first launched in 2006, the brand has ridden the crest of the wave of honey-flavoured Bourbons now on offer to deliver 45.6% sales growth in 2012.

The Italian drinks group claims the entire Wild Turkey portfolio, including its RTDs, performed strongly across all its key markets. Meanwhile Brown-Forman’s investment in a honey expression for its Jack Daniel’s brand has helped drive the portfolio’s 100,000 case growth for the year. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey achieved 464,000 case sales in 2012 in the US alone, up 66.3% on the previous year.

Overall however it was Beam Inc’s work on namesake Bourbon brand Jim Beam’s RTD extensions that warranted its title of 2013 World Whisky Brand Champion. With volumes having remained largely stagnant for the past two years, Jim Beam returned to positive growth with a bang, delivering 6.3m case sales in 2012.

Jim Beam Lime Splash has been slowly rolling out across the brand’s key markets over the last couple of years, along with new winter expression Jim Beam Hot Punch, which has helped drive double-digit sales growth for the portfolio in Germany.

The Jim Beam portfolio has long been a devotee to flavoured expressions, with Red Stag and Jim Beam Honey driving growth, but its absence from the super-premium end of the Bourbon market – an area growing by 12.4% years-on-year – is something Brown-Forman is looking to change in the next few months.