Deep Eddy Vodka hits one million case sales

Heaven Hill Brands-owned Deep Eddy Vodka has exceeded one million annual case sales for the first time, and continues to target aggressive growth this year.

In 2016, the brand grew its nine-litre case sales by 30%, from 705,000 in the 2015 calendar year to just over one million.

According to figures obtained by The Spirits Business, Deep Eddy’s sales have increased 1,566% over the last four years – from 60,000 cases in 2012.

The Texas-based brand was acquired by Heaven Hill Brands – the largest family-owned and operated spirits business in the US – for an undisclosed sum in 2015.

Heaven Hill is aiming to make Deep Eddy the best-selling super-premium domestic vodka in the US.

Speaking to The Spirits Business earlier this year, Max L Shapira, president of Heaven Hill Brands, described Deep Eddy as the “perfect acquisition” for his firm. “It’s been a terrific success and continues to grow at an unbelievably remarkable rate and we are highly excited about it,” he said.

The brand – which operates as a bolt-on business within Heaven Hill, complete with its own management, sales and accounting teams – is targeting rapid annual growth of 40% this year, with Shapira estimating sales of 1.3m-1.4m by the end of Heaven Hill’s 2016/17 financial year.

When asked whether Deep Eddy can become one of the world’s largest vodka brands, Shapira said: “We certainly would hope that, but at this point we have been concentrating almost all of our efforts here in the US. We would certainly like a more international focus in the future.”

Last year, Heaven Hill confirmed plans to build a second distillery for Deep Eddy, which will allow the brand to expand production to five million cases a year.

For a more in-depth look at the performance of the million case-selling spirits brands, see The Brand Champions supplement in the June issue of The Spirits Business magazine – out soon.