INTERNATIONAL. Chivas Brothers today launched its latest collaboration with fashion designer Christian Lacroix – a luxury limited-edition version of its super-premium Scotch whisky Chivas Regal 18yo. Following on from the launch of the Chivas 12 Year Old Magnum by Christian Lacroix last year, the new edition of Chivas 18yo will be available in selected travel retail outlets from November.
Chivas Regal 18 Year Old by Christian Lacroix features a lavish, brocade presentation box in French jacquard, with a mirrored interior, while the familiar Chivas label on the bottle is also embroidered in jacquard. The bottle itself features an intricate “metallic” design echoing that of Lacroix’s work on the Chivas 12yo magnum. Only 3,000 bottles of the Lacroix 18yo will be available, with around one-third allocated to the duty free market at a retail price of $495.
In November Paris Charles de Gaulle airport will welcome the world premiere of Chivas 18 Year Old by Christian Lacroix, with the bottle making its debut at Aelia’s stores in terminals 2C and 2E. The following month the limited edition will be rolled out to World Duty Free’s stores in London Heathrow terminals 3, 4 and 5, before the product is launched in duty free outlets in Moscow and New York JFK. In the New Year, the limited edition will be introduced to key airports in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, including Dubai, Singapore Changi and Hong Kong.
The new Chivas 18yo Lacroix limited edition was unveiled to travel retail press earlier today, with senior Chivas Brothers and Pernod Ricard Travel Retail executives in attendance, along with the creative director of the brand’s design agency BEING/TBWA, Nicolas Couagnon. Couagnon described the painstaking, 18-month process necessary before the bottle was ready for production, during which several options were considered including a leather-clad design by late British designer Alexander McQueen.
Pernod Ricard Travel Retail Europe Marketing Director John Smailes said that Chivas 18yo was now benefiting from years of marketing investment within travel retail markets. “About four or five years ago we began doing a lot of specific promotional activity behind 18yo in duty free and travel retail, and that’s paying off now,” he said. “This gives us the tools to take the next step with the product, and the new Lacroix limited edition is part of that. We don’t do many volume promotions and we select our travel retail locations for this type of launch carefully.” He added that promotional activity behind Chivas Regal 12yo – still “the powerhouse of the brand” – would help to drive sales of both 18yo and the ultra-premium 25yo variant, relaunched in 2007.
In recent figures published by the International Wine & Spirit Record, Chivas Regal was the fourth-biggest selling spirits brand in duty free in 2009, behind rival Scotch Johnnie Walker, Absolut vodka and Bacardi rum.
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The new Chivas Regal 18yo limited edition is the second of the brand’s collaborations with Christian Lacroix, following the launch of the special Chivas 12yo magnum last year |
