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Coming soon to a travel retail store near you: A ‘most unusual gin’ |
UK. William Grant & Sons, best known for its best-selling single malt whisky Glenfiddich, is launching what it describes as ‘a most unusual gin’ to the travel retail channel.
Hendrick’s is a 44% abv ‘handcrafted’ product, distilled and bottled in Scotland. It is made from a proprietary recipe which includes traditional botanicals such as juniper, coriander and citrus peel. More unusually, the gin is infused with cucumber and rose petals.
Hendrick’s was voted the best gin in the world by the Wall Street Journal in 2003, according to the company. It has been established successfully in the US domestic market for the past four years. It was launched into the UK local market in 2003 and recently into Spain.
The recommended selling price is £19.99 for a litre bottle in travel retail.
The company’s main focus is on the US, UK and Spain, reflecting their status as the largest gin markets. However, other countries are currently being targeted.
New Brand Development Manager Elwyn Gladstone told The Moodie Report: “We have taken a very long term view for Hendrick’s – we want to build its reputation gradually and let people discover it for themselves. We are not going to take shortcuts to do this, which means we are going to focus on putting it in very high-quality on-trade and off-trade outlets. We strongly believe that Hendrick’s will become a key part of the William Grant & Sons Portfolio.”
Why gin from a distiller synonymous with the world’s most famous single malt whisky Glenfiddich? And why now? “The market is shifting and the growth is within the super-premium sector – brands such as Tanqueray 10 and ourselves – as people trade up more and more,” replied Gladstone.
“There is a growing consumer segment who are genuinely interested in hand-crafted white spirits with extremely high quality of product – and we believe that Hendrick’s targets these consumers perfectly.”
Gladstone added: “Gin is increasingly popular as their different recipes make them highly differentiated. That gives bartenders (who tend to set the trend for these things) much more to play with and get behind. Contrast this with vodka – an extremely crowded market – and hopefully it is possible to see why the gin market is so appealing.
“William Grant & Sons has established itself as a truly great producer of Scotch Whisky (Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Grant’s) – and we strongly believe that we can put our expertise in distilling, sales and marketing into other spirit categories. The company is firmly committed to growing a number of new brands and Hendrick’s is a very strong priority.”
The product will be displayed on William Grant’s stand (GO 2 in the Golden Village) at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes.
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Glenfiddich and World Duty Free create a unique experience at London Stansted airport – 05/02/04
