Regional Specialities Brand Champion 2016

Regional Specialities Brand Champion 2016: Mistral

Chilean pisco brand Mistral saw the greatest percentage growth among million case regional speciality spirits

This new section in The Spirits Business’s Brand Champions report shines a light on ‘regional speciality’ spirits – those brands that year after year shift enormous volumes but have a relatively small footprint outside of their domestic markets.

In this sector spanning predominantly Latin America and Asia sits the world’s largest spirit brand, Jinro. The Korean soju saw single-digit growth of 1.56% in 2015 to 71.5m cases – almost three times the size of Diageo’s Smirnoff vodka. Since 2011, the brand has sold an additional 5m cases despite geopolitical turbulences across its core Asian markets.

However, it is a brand with much more modest volumes that has secured our inaugural Regional Specialities Brand Champion title. Mistral pisco, owned by Compañía Pisquera de Chile (CPCH), saw the fastest rate of growth in 2015 compared with any other ‘regional’ spirit brand, at +7.39%. The Chilean product has ridden a wave of premiumisation in the sector and benefited from growing consumer interest in artisan brands.

“The continuous growth of pisco in the premium segment of the market and also the image of our brand, specifically among the high economic segment of our customer base, was the main factor that contributed to Mistral’s growth in 2015,” says Jaime Binder, CPCH export director.

The brand focused its exports on the Argentinian and US markets, which has seen a rise in pisco-based cocktails. However, Binder claims the Chilean pisco category – much larger than its Peruvian cousin – remains “highly competitive” due to a hoard of promotional activities, in addition to the increased media spend from more international categories such as whisky.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the rest of our Brand Champions 2016