The spirits brands close to one million cases

This year’s Brand Champions’ ‘nearly there’ table highlights the brands edging ever closer to the coveted one-million-case mark and those that have slipped below the threshold.

For the majority of brands, whose data was collected for the Brand Champions 2023 report this year, their edging towards the million-case-sales mark is clear – such as Spanish liqueur Licor 43, which jumped by 22.5% in 2022, and is now tantalisingly close to becoming a million-case brand at 0.98m cases. So too is Campari Group’s Grand Marnier liqueur, which also grew to 0.98m cases – a 3.2% increase. For both brands, 2022 marked their highest volume sales in five years.

The beginning of 2022 saw Grand Marnier introduce a £2,200 bottling as part of its Exceptional Range. It seems the Cognac and orange liqueur-based brand is on the up, but is yet to hit the big leagues.

Meanwhile, Licor 43 kept up its presence in 2022 with its cocktail competition the Bartenders and Baristas Challenge. The brand could be looking at finally hitting one million cases this year after it launched its Coco Milk ready-to-drink (RTD), a coconut milk-based variant to attract vegans.

However, it is a different story for two Diageo brands: Triple Ace vodka and Kenya Cane rum.

Triple Ace finally grew past the million-case mark in 2021, when it sold 1.18m cases. But a 27.1% drop in 2022 put the brand back below the boundary, at 0.86m cases.

Meanwhile, Kenya Cane has experienced year-on-year declines since 2018, slipping further from the one million cases it once held in 2020.

Like Triple Ace, Maspex Group’s Polish vodka, Zytniówka, fell below one million cases in 2022 after suffering the biggest drop among the brands in the ‘nearly there’ table with a 36% decrease. It marks the second year of a double-digit drop for the brand.

Finally, given that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Teremana Tequila surpassed one million nine-litre-case sales in the 12 months to April this year, we may see the brand enter the The Brand Champions report for the first time in 2024. Its volumes are impressive when you consider that the brand, distributed globally by Mast-Jägermeister, was only launched in 2020.

It is worth noting, though, that a number of companies declined to provide data for certain brands below 1m cases – including some that have sat pretty close to the mark in previous years. These include Distell’s Amarula liqueur, Beam Suntory’s Sauza Tequila and Cruzan rum brands, and Herradura Tequila.

Figures: million 9l-case sales

Brand	Owner	Category	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	%change
Grand Marnier	Campari Group	Liqueur	0.95	0.90	0.85	0.95	0.98	3.2%
Licor 43	Zamora Company	Liqueur	0.73	0.73	0.63	0.80	0.98	22.5%
Zytniówka	Maspex Group	Vodka	2.10	2.11	2.15	1.50	0.96	-36.0%
Orloff	Pernod Ricard	Vodka	0.81	0.80	N/A	0.81	0.94	16.0%
Zubr	Stock Spirits Group	Vodka	0.47	0.58	0.75	0.92	0.93	1.1%
Lunazul Tequila	Heaven Hill Brands	Tequila	0.31	0.39	0.42	0.62	0.92	48.1%
Teremana	Siete Buck Spirits	Tequila	N/A	N/A	0.23	0.60	0.89	49.6%
1965 Spirit of Victory	Radico Khaitan	Rum	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.88	N/A
Kenya Cane	Diageo	Rum	1.70	1.36	1.02	0.92	0.87	-5.4%
Triple Ace	Diageo	Vodka	0.14	0.39	0.76	1.18	0.86	-27.1%
DYC	Beam Suntory	World Whisky	0.81	0.81	0.67	0.77	0.83	7.0%
Admiral Nelson’s	Heaven Hill Brands	Rum	0.97	0.88	0.88	0.85	0.82	-3.0%

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