Scotch Whisky Brand Champion 2019: Glenfiddich

Glenfiddich grew by an impressive 10.3% in 2018

The world’s biggest­-selling single malt Scotch whisky, Glenfiddich, has witnessed consistent growth year after year. A former Scotch Whisky Brand Champion, the William Grant & Sons­-owned brand witnessed a double­-digit rise in sales last year, up by 10.3% to 1.4m cases. The growth has both secured its place in the million-­plus contingent and created a wider gap between it and single malt rival The Glenlivet, owned by Pernod Ricard.

One of the key drivers of its growth was the “continued roll­out of The Glenfiddich Experimental Series”, according to Claudia Falcone, global brand director for Glenfiddich at William Grant & Sons. Last year, Glenfiddich extended its Experimental Series with the launch of Fire & Cane – a smoky single malt Scotch finished in rum casks. Glenfiddich Fire & Cane joined fellow Experimental Series expressions Glenfiddich IPA Experiment and Glenfiddich Project XX, which both launched in 2016, and Glenfiddich Winter Storm, which was released in 2017.

The brand also attributed its growth to “successfully recruiting new drinkers” to the category. “With the proliferation of new malts to the market, our malt master, Brian Kinsman, genuinely pushed the boundaries and explored new finishes that captured the essence of our maverick spirit,” says Falcone. “That, combined with the incredible work within markets to help differentiate the brand and achieve standout, helped us to drive growth.”

For Glenfiddich, markets such as the UK, US, Australia, Germany and France are “all delivering growth”, while the global travel retail market is “performing exceptionally well”. William Grant is also seeing “tremendous opportunity” in Asia and emerging markets. “In the scale of things, China largely remains uncharted territory for single malt, Taiwan is buoyant, whereas we are very excited about markets such as Nigeria and South Africa, which are incredibly dynamic and vibrant,” enthuses Falcone. “We will continue to invest heavily in these markets and others as we seek out and develop new opportunities.”

The brand will also build on its success over the past few years with a new global campaign and “a number of incredible new concepts”, says Falcone. “It’s very much a case of ‘watch this space’.”

Scotch whisky has enjoyed good fortunes recently, with global exports growing in volume and value terms last year. Figures released by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and quoted by the Scotch Whisky Association, revealed the total export value of Scotch whisky increased by 7.8% to reach a record £4.07bn (US$5.25bn) in 2018. In volume terms, 1.28bn 700ml bottles were shipped out of Scotland last year – a 3.6% increase compared with the year before.

Single malt exports experienced double-­digit growth of 11.3%, reaching £1.3bn, while blended Scotch whisky exports hit £3.04bn last year. Looking at the rest of the Brand Champions Scotch whisky table, it was a picture of health across the category, with notable gains by Diageo’s Black & White blend (14.9%) and The Glenlivet (9.3%). Only a handful of brands, including J&B and Clan Campbell, declined.

*The Brand Champions data is listed to one decimal place for ease of reading, but the percentage changes are based on the full data supplied. All brand data is supplied in millions of nine-­litre cases.

Scotch whisky (figures: million 9l case sales)