Introduction: Koskenkorva Vodka, Finland’s biggest-selling spirit brand, is on a mission to tell the world – and the travel retail community – about its sustainability credentials.
Late last month, brand owner Anora Group brought 150 guests from 15 countries across the drinks and travel retail sectors to the Finnish village where Koskenkorva is produced to share an immersive brand experience. Our Senior Business Editor Mark Lane was among them.
“Koskenkorva is a brand for those who do make a conscious choice. If you are 20 or 55 years of age, that is not important for us – it’s the mindset of the consumer that matters.”
About KoskenkorvaKoskenkorva is distilled in the village of the same name in Southern Ostrobothnia, some 355km from the capital Helsinki. In Finnish, the name Koskenkorva refers to a place next to a river rapid. The Koskenkorva estate, near the Kyröjoki river, is among the oldest in Finland with a history dating back to the 1600s. The estate was established on its current site in 1870 by a member of the Koskenkorva family with the distillery added in 1938, beginning full operations in 1941. |
The words of Anora Group Duty Free & Travel Retail Director Bo Madsen underline an urgent principle that underpins the company’s ambitions for its best-selling Koskenkorva brand – sustainability.
During an enthralling experience delivered to guests over three days, Anora outlined its commitment to being recognised as the owner of the world’s most sustainable vodka. From farm to bottle, concern for the environment guides every step.
The Koskenkorva distillery aims to have all production fully carbon-neutral by 2025.
Koskenkorva Vodka uses 100% of every single barley grain – what cannot be used for vodka goes into animal feed and barley starch. The rest is used as fuel to run the distillery’s bioenergy power plant.
Remarkably, the brand uses 15% of all barley produced in Finland, underlining the critical focus on sustainability.
In 2020, Finnish farmer Jari Eerola pioneered the first batch of regeneratively farmed barley. His Setälä-Eerola farm produced 50 tonnes of the variant, which was distilled to make Koskenkorva Climate Action, the world’s first vodka to be made with 100% regeneratively farmed barley.
Key sustainability benefits arise from using this type of barley in spirit-making. Regenerative agriculture is a holistic cultivation method designed to convert fields from emission sources into significant carbon sinks, mitigating climate change and protecting biodiversity.
By improving soil health, these methods increase carbon sequestration in agricultural soils while also enabling better crops and mitigating land erosion. Anora Group intends that all its contract barley farmers educate themselves on regenerative agriculture by 2025.
In pursuit of this goal, the company is being assisted by the Baltic Sea Action Group, which works to restore the Baltic Sea’s ecological balance.
Travel retail ambitions underpinned by core values
Koskenkorva Climate Action has been a key expression in helping Anora to reach 26 travel retail country markets. The brand’s holistic environmental focus is set to help it reach many more in a channel where sustainability has become a prime consideration.
“Operating in the travel retail channel, which by its nature has several barriers and long-term challenges to be considered fully sustainable, it is super important that we as producers take responsibility and do our utmost to help operators in every aspect [of sustainability],” says Bo Madsen. “Koskenkorva is already a world leader in this respect.
“As an industry, we need to have a high focus on better and more environmentally-friendly brands and consumer offerings. Koskenkorva Vodka has for many years been advocating honesty and transparency in our production methods, and sustainability has been a natural aspect for us. In the village of Koskenkorva, we are forerunners of the circular economy.”
Madsen says he considers any environmentally-conscious spirits consumer as a target for Koskenkorva. “In terms of target groups, we do not work towards very specific age groups. We work towards consumers sharing our mindset and respecting sustainable brands true to their genuine voice and originality.”
He concludes: “Our mid- to longer-term ambitions are to grow the Koskenkorva Vodka brand outside the Nordics, and to become an internationally known and relevant brand for consumers, as well as a recognised leader on the sustainability front within global travel retail.
“We are assessing our route to market model in the different GTR areas, in close collaboration with our international business unit and our export team, to optimise our efforts and investments. We all have a super exciting time ahead of us.”
The production of Koskenkorva VodkaKoskenkorva is made with the northernmost barley in the world, using varieties such as Saana and Elmeri that have been developed for Finland’s short growing season. The Koskenkorva distillery deploys a state-of-the-art distillation process that offers exceptional material efficiency. The process uses 100% of the barley grain. Koskenkorva Vodka is produced by continuous distillation, where barley mash is ceaselessly fed into a unique distillation process that uses nine columns. The distillation happens in five of those columns, each of which has its own roles and functions. Four supporting columns recycle fusel alcohol from the main distillation, raising efficiency up to 99% and creating Koskenkorva Vodka’s characteristically smooth taste. The spirit is completed with the addition of unprocessed pure spring water from Rajamäki, a village in southern Finland, also the location where Koskenkorva is bottled. |
The Koskenkorva Village Experience in pictures
