Shanken's Impact Newsletter May 1, 2017

AFTER STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN STEADY volume growth in the U.S. market in recent years, the imported table wine category was flat in 2016 at 67.4 million nine-liter case depletions, according to Impact Databank. While eight of the market’s top 20 imported wine brands failed to post volume gains and three were flat last year, nine top imports offset those declines with solid growth. De-spite the mixed picture across the overall category, imported wine’s high-end tier is soaring, as U.S. consumers continue to mi-grate to bottled wines above the $10 price point across a number of segments. Yellow Tail, the import category’s largest brand with a 12% share, shed about 160,000 cases from its 2015 volume to fall below the 8-million-case mark in the U.S., as the com-petitively-priced Australian segment contin-ues…

WITH PREMIUMIZATION IN FULL SWING AND BROWN SPIRITS CONTINUING TO BOOM, it’s no surprise that Diageo’s Johnnie Walker—the world’s most prominent upscale whisky label—also remains the most valuable spirit brand worldwide by retail value at $5.2 billion, according to Impact Databank. However, while the super-premium Scotch brand still has a cushion of nearly $1.4 billion over second-ranked Hennessy, its value declined by $25 million last year on a volume decrease of 1.5% to 17.3 million cases. Meanwhile, the Moët Hennessy Cognac franchise has been surging ever closer, adding nearly $400 million to its coffers last year alone. In fact, in 2016, Hennessy leapfrogged Smirnoff to achieve the num-ber-two position by value globally, as consumers continue to favor brown spirits, and more premium offerings within the vodka category itself. Other recent…

THE U.S. IMPORTED WINE MARKET HAS BEEN A TALE of two segments recently, with bottles priced $10 and above show-ing dynamic growth, and the value segment facing its share of strug-gles. The good news is that while overall category volume has re-mained relatively flat in recent years, consumers are consistently adding value to the imported wine market by reaching for higher-priced offerings. As our special report on imported wine reveals, the top 15 import brands priced above $10 a 750-ml. surged a collective 15% by vol-ume last year, according to Impact Databank. And while nine mem-bers of that prestigious group grew by double-digits in 2016, none declined. Elsewhere, we recently caught up with one of the most sought-after executives across the global drinks industry: Takeshi Niinami, president and CEO of…

PERNOD RICARD HAS REPORTED A 5% increase in its U.S. sales for the nine months through March, representing the first three-quarters of its fiscal year. Pernod’s U.S. growth over the period continued to be led by Jameson, as well as Martell Cognac and Altos Tequila, all of which showed double-digit gains. Absolut continued to decline over the past nine months, although Pernod noted that the brand’s recent Lime fla-vor enjoyed a strong launch. According to Impact Databank, Jameson surged 16% to 2.8 million cases last year in the U.S., while Martell increased 6% to 105,000 cases and Al-tos leapt 28% to 160,000 cases. Abso-lut, meanwhile, slipped 3.4% to 3.9 million cases. Pernod Ricard North America chairman and CEO Paul Duffy recently told Impact that the company has made a number…

MINNEAPOLIS-BASED RETAIL GIANT TARGET PLANS TO MODERNIZE ITS RETAIL operations this year, with the effort including the launch of new Wine & Beer shops as part of an overall redesign. Under the new concept, Target stores will have a second entrance offering easy access to a Wine & Beer shop, self-checkout lanes, the grocery section and an order pickup counter. The first Target featuring the redesign will be a new 124,000-square-foot store slated to open in October in Richmond, Texas, 35 miles southwest of Houston. In addition, 40 more stores will receive elements of the redesign in October. The move comes as Target plans to dramatically grow its beverage alcohol business this year, with expansion into 300 more stores through increased footprints, remodels and new liquor licenses. In all, Target…

REPUBLIC NATIONAL DISTRIBUTING Co. (RNDC) partner Alan Dreeben and Campari America chairman Gerry Ruvo were recognized with special awards at this year’s Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America convention in Orlando, held April 18-21. Dreeben, a leader within the middle tier for de-cades who has helped build RNDC into a distribution powerhouse with nearly $7.5 billion in annual sales, was presented with WSWA’s Lifetime Leadership Award, recognizing a wholesaler who has made exemplary contributions to the beverage industry, the WSWA and his community. Dree-ben has spent more than 50 years in the drinks industry and is known for being among the second tier’s leading pioneers in creating the U.S. premium wine market. He began his career with E.&J. Gallo in Los Angeles in 1966, reporting directly to founder Ernest Gallo.…