INTERNATIONAL. Smirnoff vodka has extended its lead at the top of IWSR’s Top 50 International Spirits Brands in 2011, selling 25.2 million cases. The result reflects the growing importance of vodka brands in general, with 13 brands in this year’s list.
Ukrainian brand Khortytsa entered the list for the first time in eleventh position, joining compatriots Nemiroff and Khlibniy Dar in the top 11. All three lost volumes in 2011 due to declines in the local market, increasing the importance of export business to these brands.
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Vodka also dominated IWSR’s list of the fastest-growing spirits brands in 2011, representing 12 out of the 25 fastest-growing brands. Polish brands performed particularly well; CEDC’s Żubrówka grew fastest, with Belvédère’s Krupnik in second place.
IWSR noted: “The local approach has proved best in terms of stimulating large growth. Of the vodka brands in the top 25 fastest growth list, all but Smirnoff sell over 90% in one market, and those markets are invariably Poland, Russia, Ukraine or the US.”
Diageo owns eight of the 50 top brands, including Johnnie Walker (third), Baileys (tenth) and Gordon’s gin (nineteenth). Pernod Ricard has ten brands on the list, more than any other supplier, with Absolut (fourth) its highest-ranked brand.
Bacardi-Martini’s William Lawson’s Scotch, forty-fifth in the list, was the fastest-growing of the top 50 brands, growing by +31.7%.
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