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AMERICAS. Haleybrooke International has reached an agreement with Exclusive Brands to represent that company’s recently launched kosher vodkas, Exclusive Kosher vodka and Hava Nagila Kosher vodka in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Haleybrooke International President Patrick Nilson stated: “This is a very interesting category for us. We already have some vodkas in our portfolio but these are our first kosher vodkas. I think there has been a need for quality kosher vodkas and these two brands will certainly fill that void.
“Both Exclusive Kosher vodka, which will compete in the premium category, and Hava Nagila Kosher vodka, which is a super-premium vodka, originate from Israel and are produced based on the traditional recipe, with 100% grain spirit and pure spring water.”
Haleybrooke International Vice President Roger Thompson added: “I am looking forward to working on both of the vodka brands because I have a number of duty free customers in Canada and the USA that are looking for kosher wines and spirits. We are already doing a very nice business with a kosher Prosecco from Distilleria Bottega.”
Exclusive Brands Managing Director Wojtek Wydro said: “I am looking forward to working with Haleybrooke International and introducing our kosher vodkas in the Americas. Exclusive Kosher Vodka is a market leader in Israel and now is being launched across Europe with Poland being the first market. Hava Nagila is the first-ever Israeli Kosher vodka in the super-premium category. I am confident that both brands will be an interesting proposition for duty free customers in Americas.”
“WE WANT TO BE UNIQUE, NOT NICHE”
In an interview with The Moodie Report at the recent TFWA Asia Pacific Wydro said the company had powerful ambitions. “We don’t want to be niche, we want to be unique,” he said, “but still go into relatively wide distribution.
“We decided to introduce a kosher vodka from the heart of “˜kosher-ness’, Israel,” he added.
“So far the concept has been very well received. We started in Poland and then we are moving onto the international market. Obviously there are some markets where we know the Jewish community is big so the kosher vodka market should also be big – America, Central Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union countries.
“There are also other types of market, such as Vietnam and Kazakhstan, with big potential in volume terms.
“In terms of duty free we started in Poland through [Flemingo-owned] Baltona across 24 shops. They are planning new acquisitions so I hope we can grow with them. Then the next step will be to slowly approach the big guys.
“Exclusive is similar to Danzka or Finlandia or Absolut in terms of price positioning, depending on the market; Hava Nagila is a super-premium vodka, much more orientated in the old Jewish traditions and historical approach. This will be our brand for the US.”
Is the company targeting only the Jewish community, or could kosher vodkas have wider appeal? “We believe that the kosher concept is becoming more and more like a fashion, just like organic products,” Wydro replied.
“The kosher concept is becoming more popular in Europe and of course Jewish communities are getting bigger. But we don’t want to sell just to the Jewish community – a kosher vodka is a little bit different and you could argue that the kosher certificate is the oldest ISO certificate in the world because it is 3,000 years old. So there is an extra quality check and that is one of the things we are selling.”
So what exactly is a kosher vodka? “First of all it cannot contain anything coming from animals,” Wydro explained. “It should be from grain or potatoes and have clean production.”
In a market cluttered with lookalikes and a flavour excess that wouldn’t be out of place in a candy shop, these vodkas promise something different. And that’s a truly kosher claim.
For more information please contact Wojtek Wydro at ww@exclusivebrands.pl or visit http://www.exclusivebrands.pl
For the Americas, contact Patrick Nilson at p.nilson@haleybrooke.com or call +1 (845) 981-7240 or Roger Thompson at r.thompson@haleybrooke.com or call +1 (203) 322 9691
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