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Mackmyra to create Great Britain subsidiary
Swedish whisky producer Mackmyra will establish a subsidiary in Great Britain this year as it seeks to take a “leading position” in craft spirits.
Swedish whisky producer Mackmyra is targeting the UK market
The wholly-owned subsidiary will be known as Mackmyra Swedish Whisky Ltd and is in the “initial stages” of planning. Mackmyra expects the subsidiary to be fully operational during the second half of 2018.
The Swedish whisky maker plans to “accelerate growth” in the UK, a key market for the producer.
As a result, Mackmyra’s current importer in Great Britain will be “phased out”, while sales and marketing activities in Great Britain will also be brought in-house in the future.
Mackmyra noted Great Britain’s position at the “forefront of craft spirits development”, with many small whisky and gin distilleries opening in recent years, as a key reason for its “radical” strategic change.
The company added that the Swedish market is “limited” in size and so as part of its strategy it will invest in select export markets “with the potential to deliver very large sales volumes in the future”.
In Mackmyra’s priority markets – Great Britain, Germany and France – total growth between 2014 and 2017 was 360%.
According to the company, around 100 million bottles of whisky are sold every year in Great Britain – more than 10 times the size of the Swedish market.
The volume of gin sold there is also significantly higher than in Sweden.
“Mackmyra’s business model, with its own sales team and plenty of consumer interaction, has been very successful in Sweden and Germany,” said Magnus Dandanell, managing director of Mackmyra Svensk Whisky AB.
“We strongly believe that this is the right way forward for achieving our full potential in the UK market.”
Established in 1999, Mackmyra makes Swedish gin and single malt whisky and aims to establish itself internationally as a “new world whisky”.
Last year, Mackmyra opened a stand-alone Lab Distillery at its former production site, as the company seeks to develop innovative spirits in collaboration with craft distillers.