Indholdsfortegnelse for June 1-15, 2022 i Shanken's Impact Newsletter

WHEN TEREMANA TEQUILA FIRST HIT THE market in March 2020, founder Dwayne Johnson and his team could hardly have imagined the extraordinary success the brand has achieved in less than three years. Now the third-ranked super-premium Te-quila in the U.S. and the 10th largest by overall volume, Teremana continues to thrive despite its pandemic-period launch. “Consumers caught on to Teremana quickly and we sold 400,000 9-liter cases in our first 12 months, which we were all blown away with,” says Nicole Austin, se-nior brand manager. “We were out of stock a lot due to the unprecedented demand. We were able to increase our production, but we will only grow as quickly as we can en-sure we are making Teremana in the same high-quality, crafted way.” Austin says Teremana is on…

NEW YORK’S EMPIRE MERCHANTS has introduced Empire360, a new plat-form developed in conjunction with City Hive Inc. The platform, available 24 hours a day, will allow both on- and off-premise customers to manage their orders and increase business efficien-cies. Empire’s hope is that the e-com-merce platform will allow customers to more easily place orders and manage payments and invoicing. “We believe that this platform and our overall digital strategy will offer our custom-ers and suppliers even more robust resources to manage their businesses and strengthen their relationship with Empire,” said Eric Pfeil, Empire’s pres-ident and CEO. City Hive currently has over 3,000 retail partners in 40 states across the U.S. The fifth-largest distibutor of wine and spirits nation-wide, Empire Merchants has projected 2022 revenues of $1.8 billion, all in the…

DIAGEO AND DEUTSCH FAMILY WINE & SPIRITS HAVE BEEN LOCKING HORNS over the packaging of their respective Bulleit and Redemption whiskey brands since 2017, with Diageo claiming that Deutsch’s 2016 packaging revamp for Redemp-tion resulted in a look that infringed on Bulleit’s trademark. A jury in the South-ern District of New York found merit on both sides, and each company told Impact that it plans to continue pressing its case. Bulleit’s U.S. volume registered 1.56 million cases in 2021, according to Impact Databank, while Redemption is at roughly 120,000 cases. “The jury concluded that Diageo’s Bulleit … packaging, including its iconic bottle, is famous and Deutsch’s Redemption packaging diluted Bulleit’s famous trade dress,” a Diageo spokesperson stated. “Diageo intends promptly to pursue all available legal remedies, including the entry of…

FLORIDA-BASED SHAW-ROSS INTERNAL-tional, importer of European wines like Marchesi Frescobaldi, The Pale by Sacha Lichine, and Marqués de Riscal, among others, has recently doubled down on premiumization, adding four new upscale brands to its portfolio. In wine, Shaw-Ross added Argenti-na’s Pulenta Estate and Chile’s Viñedos Familia Chadwick. On the spirits side, Shaw-Ross now imports actress Eva Longoria’s Tequila, Casa del Sol, and high-end rum Papa’s Pilar. While com-pany volume has approached the 2-mil-lion-case mark in recent years, these newer labels are burnishing the group’s luxury credentials. Casa del Sol brings Shaw-Ross into the white-hot high-end Tequila category. Its most recent offer-ing is 11:11 Angel’s Reserve, a new lux-ury blend of Añejo and Extra-Añejo Tequilas aged in French oak and XO Cognac barrels and retailing at $199 a bottle. “The quality…

TOTAL WINE & MORE HAS PROMOTED Troy Rice to CEO. Rice joined Total Wine & More in 2017 as a chief store officer and most recently served as chief operating officer. In his time with the retail giant, Rice is credited with help-ing the company’s sales surge past $5 billion a year while embracing digital technologies to modernize business, encouraging continued expansion and entry into new markets, and navigating the global pandemic. • Republic National Distributing Com-pany has appointed Chris Little to SVP, national and strategic accounts-retail. Little has been with RNDC since Sep-tember 2020 as VP supplier business development for the Sazerac portfolio. RNDC also promoted Brian Boeck to state executive vice president, Califor-nia. A three-decade company veteran, Boeck was most recently RNDC Cali-fornia SVP of spirits. RNDC’s Califor-nia…

BEAM SUNTORY HAS ALIGNED WITH Southern Glazer’s across all U.S. con-trol states in a new four-year deal. This agreement builds on a national distri-bution agreement announced in 2020 that aligned the two organizations across open states. With the control state accord, SGWS and Beam Suntory are now linked across 43 markets nationwide. “By expanding with con-trol markets, we can continue to make the right long-term investments that drive mutual success across both of our businesses,” said Tony Truzzolino, EVP and managing director for Beam Suntory at Southern Glazer’s.…

CALIFORNIA’S RIBOLI FAMILY WINES has opened a new division focusing on ultra-premium and luxury wine brands from France, Italy, New Zealand, and other regions. The new division is called Avanti and will be led by Riboli vice president of sales, Rebecca Powel-son. Initial selections from Avanti in-clude Champagne Nominé-Renard, featuring a portfolio of Brut, Brut Rosé, Blanc de Blancs, and Vintage; Loire Collection, with selections from Chinon and Sancerre; Urlar, a Whole Foods exclusive from New Zealand; The Champion Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand; and Santo, a collection of Moscato d’Asti and Rosé from Pied-mont, Italy. Price points in the Avanti portfolio will range from $15 to $100 a bottle. Riboli’s Italian import Stella Rosa has rocketed upward in recent years, growing 26% last year to reach 7.25 million cases…

IRISH PROFESSIONAL GOLFER GRAEME MCDOWELL HAS TEAMED UP WITH Boann Distillery in Drogheda, County Louth, to create Grey Coast, a new Irish whiskey blend. Grey Coast is named for McDowell’s hometown of Portrush on Northern Ireland’s north coast, where whiskey and golf are two of the most popu-lar pastimes. (Portrush is located just six miles from Bushmills Distillery.) “I think whiskey’s always been in the blood,” says McDowell. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the Northeast of Scotland, at distilleries and cooperages. I’ve always wanted to do something really cool, effective, and authentic.” This bottled blend marries four whiskeys. In all, 60% of the blend is made from single grain corn whiskeys matured in first-fill bourbon barrels, with an additional 25% made from single grain whiskey aged in new…

• CAMPARI HAS LAUNCHED A NEW ready-to-serve Negroni in select re-tailers across the U.S. The cocktail—an equal parts blend of Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth—comes in at 26% abv and is rolling out in a 375-ml. bottle that contains roughly four servings. In addition to select retail availability, Campari’s ready-to-serve Negroni is also available on Reserve-Bar and through Drizly. Campari’s namesake bitter grew 7.5% last year to just under 200,000 cases in the U.S. market, according to Impact Databank. • CHARTREUSE DIFFUSION, THE DIS-tribution company of Chartreuse Liqueur, has taken an undisclosed stake in New York-based importer Frederick Wildman and Sons, join-ing the company’s shareholder group and board. The move extends the partnership between Chartreuse and Wildman, which has handled the brand since 1989. Wildman’s range includes Pol Roger, Olivier…

AMID RAPIDLY CHANGING TRENDS IN THE U.S. DRINKS market, Tequila has shown remarkable consistency in its long-term growth, with the category reaching new heights in both volume and value terms each year. Tequila has become perhaps the most potent growth engine in the entire spirits industry, with spirits connois-seurs propelling gains for upscale sipping expressions and younger generations increasingly taking to RTD entries like Tequila soda. All the while, new celebrity Tequila brands continue to hit the market almost weekly. According to Impact Databank, the U.S. Tequila market—which accounts for 85% of category exports—cruised past 24 million cases in 2021, roughly doubling in size from 10 years earlier and overtaking rum in the process. Perhaps most impressively, the higher-priced 100%-Blue Agave segment now accounts for about two-thirds of the over-all…

INDUSTRY VETERAN SIMON HUNT, formerly chief executive of William Grant & Sons, has partnered with Dana White, president of mixed martial arts league UFC, on the Howler Head Banana Bourbon brand. Howler Head, an 80-proof whiskey that sources its Bourbon from Green River Distilling in Owensboro, Ken-tucky, is blended with natural banana flavor. Retailing at $30 a bottle, it’s rec-ommended as a shot, an accompani-ment to beer or hard seltzer, or for use in cocktails. The brand is off to a fast start, reaching 55,000 9-liter cases in its first year, with pronounced growth across markets including California, Florida, Michigan, and New York as well as control states. Howler Head has leveraged exposure as the official flavored whiskey partner of UFC to seed growth. The brand has amassed more than…

BOSTON BEER CO. WILL INTRODUCE cannabis-infused iced teas under the new TeaPot brand, beginning in the Canadian market in July. TeaPot is the first beverage brand developed by BBCCC Inc, Boston Beer’s cannabis subsidiary. Each 12-ounce can of Tea-Pot contains 5mg of THC. TeaPot is produced at Peak Processing Solutions in Windsor, Ontario and distributed by Entourage Health Corp. of Toronto. The new brand blends real tea with specific cannabis strains to enhance specific times of the day, according to the company. Its first release is Good Day Iced Tea.…