Top 10 best-selling spirits brands
The majority of the world’s largest local spirits experienced success in 2014, but many international labels stumbled in the volume stakes – meaning the world has a new best-selling spirit brand.
Click through the following pages to discover which is the world’s new best-selling spirits brandIndian whisky was the dominating success story of the spirits industry in 2014, with a number of already established brands expanding their reach across the globe.
However, leading international labels including Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, Smirnoff vodka and Bacardi rum witnessed markedly different fortunes, causing the best-selling spirits brands leaderboard to undergo an extensive reshuffle.
Research by the IWSR recently revealed that a decline of local spirits caused the global spirits market to fall flat in 2014, with Brazil and the Ukraine turning away from cachaça and vodka respectively.
However, this trend seems to have not permeated the world’s foremost local brands, with only two in this top 10 reporting modest single-digit volume declines.
Following the results of Brand Champions 2015 – our pick of those brands selling over one million cases annually which boast exceptional success within their categories – we run through the world’s best-selling spirits brands available on the market today.
Click through the following pages to discover the world’s top 10 best-selling spirits brands, listed in order of their nine-litre case sales. Follow the links below to view the world’s best-selling spirits brands by their individual categories.
Top 10 best-selling Scotch whisky brands
Top 10 best-selling Cognac and brandy brands
Top 10 best-selling vodka brands
Top 10 best-selling rum brands
Top 10 best-selling world whisky brands
Top 10 best-selling Indian whisky brands
Top 10 best-selling liqueur brands
Top nine best-selling speciality spirits brands
Top five best-selling gin brands
10. Imperial Blue
2014: 14.06m
2013: 10.93m
% change: +28.63
Pernod Ricard’s Imperial Blue is not only one of the fastest-growing Indian whisky brands, with a 29% volume boost in 2014, it is also one of the biggest spirits brands in the world. The brand, described by its owner as a “seminal brand”, now boasts case sales of 14.06m, a huge leap from the 6m cases five years ago.
9. Royal Stag
2014: 16.06m
2013: 14.76m
% change: +8.8%
Another one of Pernod Ricard’s Indian whisky brands, Royal Stag reported impressive growth last year when it increased case sales by 1.3m. The third best-selling Indian whisky label may soon be bottled outside of its domestic market, in Africa, with the hope it will become adopted into local drinkers’ repertoires, thus potentially growing its volumes even more. Royal Stag remains Pernod Ricard’s largest spirit brand by volume.
8. Tanduay
2014: 16.6m
2013: 14m
% change: +18.57%
By some distance, Philippines-based Tanduay was the fastest-growing rum brand of 2014, with volumes soaring up almost 19% in the year. Bouncing back from dramatic in 2013 when volumes plummeted by five million cases, Tanduay has attributed its success to an “aggressive” new campaign for its flagship expression, launched in celebration of the group’s 160th anniversary.
7. Cachaça 51
2014: 17m
2013: 17.6m
% change: -3.4%
Despite the widely reported chronic volume declines of cachaça, the category’s leading brand is still one of the best-selling spirits brands in the world. Owned by Companhia Muller de Bebidas, Cachaça 51 reflected the malaise of its sector, dropping sales by 3.4% in 2014 despite hopes the Fifa World Cup in Brazil would boost figures, at least temporarily.
6. Johnnie Walker
2014: 17.9m
2013: 20.1m
% change: -10.9%
Still the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky brands, Diageo’s Johnnie Walker took a hit in 2014, with case sales falling by almost 11%. The brand is still the second largest whisky brand in the world, having failed to reclaim its position from Indian rival Officer’s Choice, which first usurped the spot in 2013.
5. Bacardi
2014: 18.2m
2013: 19.1m
% change: -4.71%
No longer the world’s largest rum brand, Bacardi is still one of the best-selling spirits brands in the world, despite a 5% decline last year. The mighty category goliath lost almost a million cases in the time period as its core expression suffered in key regions, at the same time the group shifted its focus to the value end of the market with the launch of more “high end” bottlings.
4. McDowell’s No.1 Celebration
2014: 18.29m
2013: 19.01m
% change: -3.78%
The world’s new best-selling rum brand – by a hair’s breadth nonetheless – is McDowell’s No.1 Celebration, owned by Indian drinks group United Spirits, which is controlled by Diageo. The brand may have seen its volumes decrease by almost 4% in the year, but it managed maintain a slower rate of decline to usurp Bacardi. It will be interesting to see if their places switch once again in 2015.
3. McDowell’s No.1
2014: 25.05m
2013: 23.68m
% change: +5.78%
Sliding into the top three best-selling spirits brands is Indian whisky giant McDowell’s No.1, owned by Diageo-controlled United Spirits. Growing volume sales by almost 6% last year, the brand has surpassed the 25m case mark – showing an astonishing growth of more than 10m cases since 2010. With McDowell’s success set to continue and only 100,000 cases separating it from this year’s number two best-selling spirit, it could quite possibly move further up the ranks in the year to come.
2. Smirnoff
2014: 25.6m
2013: 26.1m
% change: -1.91%
While still the world’s largest vodka brand, Diageo’s Smirnoff vodka has finally been overtaken as the world’s best-selling spirit brand after years of retaining a firm grip on the top spot. The brand has been steadily losing volumes over the past two years, with Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes admitting that Smirnoff’s pricing in its key US market “too high” as a mid-range brand. The group had “substantially” expanded margins on its mid-priced brands in North America over the last three years in a company-wide effort to premiumise its portfolio, yet this resulted in a loss of market share for Smirnoff in a highly competitive arena.
1. Officer’s Choice
2014: 28.42m
2013: 23.8m
% change: +19.41%
The world’s new best-selling spirit brand is ABD’s Officer’s Choice Indian whisky, which reported an outstanding 19% sales growth in 2014. Reporting case sales of 28.4m in the year and adding some 5m cases to its global volumes, the brand has credited its success to expanding its presence in the US, showing that it is not confined to its domestic market. ABD claims its “righteous” positioning, new super-premium expression, Officer’s Choice Black, which launched in six Indian states in January, plus a “very emotional and inspiring” anthem that went viral, has given the brand “an unequivocal edge over competitors”. Last year, the brand usurped Johnnie Walker as the best-selling whisky label, but now sits head and shoulders above the competition as the world’s largest spirit brand.
