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Feature
Irish whiskey soars in travel retail
Irish whiskey producers are pushing their products in global travel retail in a bid to show off the depth that the category has to offer.
*This feature was originally published in the May 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Competing against the likes of Scotch and Cognac in global travel retail (GTR), Irish whiskey has continued to soar in the channel, as evidenced by double-digit growth rates.
In 2022, GTR was the fifth-biggest market for Irish whiskey (Drinks Ireland’s Irish Spirits Market Report 2022), signifying its importance to the category. However, there is huge opportunity for growth in the channel, with Irish whiskey only accounting for 3% of GTR volumes in 2022, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis noted. Irish whiskey made a strong comeback in the GTR channel, reporting growth of 66% in volume in 2022, according to IWSR. The category is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2022 and 2027. Citing International Air Transport Association data, IWSR says a full recovery in international air passenger numbers is now not forecast before 2025/2026.
“The growth of Irish whiskey continues to engage new shoppers in the channel,” says Roy Summers, head of GTR at Proximo Spirits, owner of Bushmills. “Irish whiskey has always had exceptional quality credentials, along with a history and heritage second to none. There is a lot for passengers to discover and enjoy with Irish whiskey, of which Bushmills is a great example, with over 400 years of history and craftsmanship behind it.”
GTR is of huge importance to Teeling, with the channel being its third largest, after the US and Ireland. The Dublin-based distiller reported growth of 18% in 2023 in GTR.
Co-founder Stephen Teeling says: “From when we started in 2012, we’ve partnered with the likes of Aer Rianta and Dufry, and in the past 12 months we’ve done three or four substantial projects.” The brand has created rare single malt releases, including adn exclusive 31-year-old Sherry cask whiskey for World Duty Free at the start of 2024, available in key London airports such as Heathrow. “As people are travelling, they’re actively looking for stuff they can only buy in duty free,” he notes.
Teeling is not the only brand busy with GTR releases. This year, Redbreast launched its Cuatro Barriles Edition as an exclusive to Aer Rianta at Dublin and Cork airports.
“We have strong ambitions with our Irish whiskey portfolio in global travel retail, notably around premiumisation and showcasing interesting and unique offerings for Irish within the channel,” says Liya Zhang, vice-president of marketing, Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail. “We will continue to grow and build the Jameson brand globally, and also introduce the world to our wider whiskey portfolio, which includes the wonderful Redbreast.”
Category leader Jameson is also seeing strong growth in the channel, says Zhang. “Jameson is performing well in key emerging regions, such as Gulf and India, which witnessed a 13% uplift in H1 FY24 [1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024] compared with last year. Excitingly, momentum has continued in the second half of FY24,” she adds.
Exclusive range
Meanwhile, Bushmills has a number of expressions planned for the channel this year. Summer says: “In 2024, we are expanding the footprint of our travel retail-exclusive range of single malts, The World Wood Series: a collection of small batch, rare Irish single malt whiskeys bottled at 46% ABV.” The series includes a 15-year-old Bourbon Cask and a 21-year-old whiskey finished in oloroso Sherry, Bourbon, and Masala barrels. It was soft-launched in Asia Pacific and is now available in EMEA and the US. Summer says there is a new “rare” GTR whiskey planned for the brand’s Causeway Collection in 2024.
Zhang also notes “strong growth for the cruise business in the Americas; which represents a clear opportunity for Jameson”. She adds: “We believe the Irish whiskey category is ripe for opportunities rather than challenges. One will be to expand our reach beyond EMEA, and to premiumise our portfolio through our higher-end expressions. We have been increasing our premium contribution year on year, and we only see this continuing.”
Teeling also notes a “huge advantage” on Irish ferries, where you can buy four litres of alcohol duty free.
Northern Ireland-based Two Stacks, founded in 2021, quickly established a presence in GTR after winning a year-long listing in Qatar Duty Free for its 100ml Dram In A Can. The company plans to launch a discovery gift pack with its range of four Irish whiskeys in 100ml cans, alongside its canned cream liqueur.
“We want to showcase Irish whiskey, the new chapter,” says Two Stacks co-founder Shane McCarthy, who believes the channel is dominated by several brands. “I think 90%-plus of what’s represented in the category is incredibly misrepresented,” he explains. “You go into the Bourbon space or the Scotch space, there’s no way these categories are represented by only one or two brands. That’s something that really frustrated us and that’s the reason that we really pushed hard to showcase not just Two Stacks, but peated Irish whiskey and complex blends, double distilled malt, anything that Irish whiskey is. It’s a great shop window.”
Teeling believes the category has “underperformed for so many years” with a “huge opportunity for growth”.
He says: “What we have found is that the consumers are now interested in Irish whiskey. So therefore, there’s an opportunity for retailers. They’re coming to us saying Irish whiskey is interesting, what can you do to excite the consumers?”
He has also notes an opportunity for Irish to take share from Scotch, which had a 30% share of GTR spirits volumes in 2022 (IWSR data). Teeling says: “In emerging markets Scotch brands do OK, but in the more mature markets, there’s a bit of flux based around blended Scotch, so there’s an opportunity for Irish whiskey to steal a bit of shelf space. That newness and the vibrancy coming out of the interest from a new consumer of Irish whiskey has continued, and even accelerated during Covid.”
Teeling comes to the conclusion that there is “something going on in Irish whiskey that the retailers are recognising”, adding that in Europe, and the US – a major market for Irish whiskey – “retailers see that opportunity just getting bigger”.
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