Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams Crosses 2 Million Cases, Projects Further Growth Ahead

With an accessible, under-$20 price point welcoming consumers into the American whiskey category, Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams has been among Bourbon’s strongest performers recently. According to Impact Databank, the brand crossed the 2-million-case threshold last year on a 15% increase (excluding flavors), capping a three-year run in which it has expanded by 50% from an already sizeable base. “We expect to see continued high single-digit to double-digit growth over the next year,” says Susan Wahl, Heaven Hill’s group product manager, whiskey portfolio.

In the flavored whiskey segment, Evan Williams recently launched a Peach variant under its Flavored Reserves line—which rose 12% to 220,000 cases last year—and Wahl believes flavors will continue to be a valuable extension of the Bourbon category. “We see three things happening in the flavor area,” she observes. “New consumers to whiskey coming in through the flavors and migrating to the mainline brand; flavored vodka and liqueur users coming to whiskey flavors and not exploring beyond them; and mainline Bourbon users enjoying flavors for an occasional change of pace or sharing with a wider group of friends.”

Heaven Hill, which is planning a $15.5 million expansion project at its Bernheim Distillery—where Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Larceny, Old Fitzgerald and others are produced—has also been expanding at Bourbon’s upscale end. After a three-year hiatus due to inventory shortages, Elijah Craig reintroduced its 18-year-old Single Barrel whiskey last fall at $120 a bottle, and released a limited amount of 23-year-old Single Barrel ($199) as well.

“Most of our straight Bourbon and American whiskey brands are up by double digits, with the more premium brands growing in the mid-30%-range or above,” Wahl notes. “The premium portfolio—Evan Williams Single Barrel, Elijah Craig Small Batch, Larceny and Henry McKenna Single Barrel—is at the core of this strong growth.” The main challenges for the Bourbon category looking ahead, she adds, will be inventory constraints and the more fragmented market caused by the influx of new brands and extensions, creating “clutter and noise” as consumers navigate the retail shelf.

Whisky Advocate: New Scotch Distillery Planned For Former Rolls Royce Plant

Plans have been unveiled to build a new Scotch whisky distillery, Burnbrae, in the former Rolls Royce factory in East Kilbride, just south of Glasgow. The new Lowland distillery has been commissioned by Campbell Meyer & Co. Ltd, a company of whisky blenders, bottlers, brokers and exporters. Their intentions are to construct a new facility capable of producing up to two million liters of alcohol per annum by October 2017. Whisky Advocate has a full report.

News Briefs:

•Concha y Toro saw wine sales rise 9% to $857 million in the 12 months through December, on a volume increase of 3.4% to 34 million nine-liter cases. The Chilean group’s exports to the U.S. rose 3.6% in volume during the year, while its domestic Fetzer business saw total sales rise 12%, despite a volume decline of 3% to 2.1 million nine-liter cases.

•Beam Suntory has appointed Rebecca Messina as senior vice president and global chief marketing officer, effective April 25. She replaces Kevin George, who recently left the company for sales and marketing agency Acosta. Messina joins Beam Suntory from The Coca-Cola Company, where she has spent the past 22 years, most recently as senior vice president, marketing and innovation, venturing and emerging brands. She will report to Beam Suntory chairman and CEO Matt Shattock while serving on the company’s executive leadership team.

Craft Brewing And Distilling News:

•The Brewers Association (BA) trade group has reported an increase of 16.3% in craft beer export volume in 2015, bringing the total to 446,000 barrels with value of $116 million. Western Europe saw a 33.4% increase, while Ireland, the Netherlands, Thailand and Taiwan were the fastest-growing craft beer export markets last year. Canada was the largest export market, with 51% of exported volume, and Sweden, Ireland and the U.K. each had about a 10% share of last year’s volume, while Australia took 4%. The BA recently reported that craft beer rose 13% in the U.S. in 2015 to 24.5 million barrels with retail value growth of 16% to $22.3 billion.

•Boston-based Harpoon Brewery has unveiled Camp Wannamango, its first new summer seasonal in 16 years. Rolling out this month, Camp Wannamango is a tropical-inspired pale ale brewed with mango. The 5%-abv seasonal will be available through August in 12-ounce bottles, 12-ounce and 16-ounce cans and on draft. Camp Wannamango joins Celtic Red, The Long Thaw White IPA, Winter Warmer, Octoberfest and Imperial Pumpkin in Harpoon’s existing seasonal lineup.

•Correction: Yesterday’s brief on the Tennessee legislature’s bill to cap retail liquor licenses per licensee misstated the number of licenses permitted. The number of licenses allowed under the bill is two, not one.

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