SB meets… Jorge Cosano, Neit Whiskey
Jorge Cosano has a track record of successful brand building. Now he is part of the team behind luxury Irish whiskey brand Neit. As an advisor and investor, he tells us more about the expression, and gives his take on the wider Irish whiskey category.
*This feature was originally published in the February 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Tell us about your professional experience.
I was in tech and consulting for some time. I moved to the US and have spent most of my career working in beauty and wellness, food and beverage. I spent over 10 years in luxury businesses around the world. I joined LVMH as president of the US for alcohol brand Dom Pérignon in 2016; that’s when I got to know the industry. I got to understand how to do brand building, how to grow luxury brands in the alcohol space.
How did you discover Neit Whiskey?
I was introduced through a friend of mine, Giuseppe [Stigliano], the CEO of Spring Studios. He told me, these guys are doing something super-interesting. From the beginning, I was fascinated by the brand. I knew the category well and I’m always looking for disruptors, people trying to make a change. At Dom Pérignon, my main job was to modernise the brand and bring it to the younger generations. So when I look at Neit, it’s super high quality, it lives up to the standards of the best competitors in the industry. Whisky, compared with other categories, is very traditional, and has been for the past few decades, with little innovation; when you look at the market, it’s not always accessible. There are some brilliant whisky brands, but Neit Whiskey is bringing something unique.
What are your responsibilities at Neit?
Helping with strategy, route to market, marketing, distribution – the key areas of the business from an advisory perspective.
What sets Neit apart from other Irish whiskeys?
We have two to three brand pillars that make it unique. Our unique selling point is based on our brand pillars: we really want to position the brand to welcome Gen Z and women. Second, we are trying to open the category to non-whisky drinkers, and are doing non-traditional things in whiskey. Three, vertical collaborations – fashion, art, design, the culinary world – are very important to our brand identity. One thing we are working on is bringing on an ambassador from the food world. We want to show how you can pair whiskey with food, not just straight or on ice, or before or after dinner.
Which markets are you most excited about, and why?
We wanted to make sure we were building the brand the right way. The demand for Neit is higher than the supply, so now the challenge we face is to secure juice. The moment we started to present Neit in key markets – the UK and Italy – people loved it. We are not going with huge volumes; we want to make sure we are building the markets and distribution right. We want exclusivity. Stock allocation is sold out for our first year.
How do you work with such limited supplies?
When you are building a luxury premium brand you need to be selective about where you show up. That means saying ‘no’ to a lot of people. The first two years are fine if volumes are not high. Now we need to make sure we find enough supply so we’re ready for the years after.
What plans do you have for Neit Whiskey over the next 12 months?
We are focused on building distribution in key markets. We want to be in Europe (Italy, Spain, the UK, France), then the US. We don’t want to launch in the US fully at this point, but we want to see the brand in New York, LA, or Miami. Marketing-wise, we’re really focused on partnerships; we’re partnering with some amazing artists, probably one of the most-talked about artists in LA. We have something unique. Now, it’s about bringing it to market in the right way.
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