Off-trade

Scotland’s most valuable vodka and gin brands

3 March 2015

A year of growth

VODKA and gin form the core of the white spirits market in Scotland and both had a good year in 2014 even if some brands and styles did noticeably less well than others.
Total vodka sales were up 6% to just under £192m and total gin sales grew 6% to be pushing £46m.
Vodka is clearly the bigger of the two but trends in the categories are similar in some ways.
Vodka sales continued to be dominated by Smirnoff and Glen’s which between them took around 72% of total sales value.
But while both showed sales growth in the year it has to be noted that some smaller brands in the Scottish market showed very considerable sales increases.
Those included premium and imported products such as Russian Standard, Green Mark and Grey Goose but also the much more mainstream Vladivar Classic, which racked up impressive sales growth of 32% and is now pushing towards £3m worth of sales in Scottish off-trade.
The growth of special vodkas hasn’t been lost on the big brands of course. Smirnoff Gold Cinnamon added 34% over the year and the new owner of Glen’s, Loch Lomond Group, is launching Glen’s Platinum this year.
In gin there’s one massively dominant brand (Gordon’s) rather than two. But like the two giant vodkas it’s a cast-iron must-stock, in all types of outlet.
But, while it and the well established number-two brand Bombay Sapphire showed decent growth, there were much bigger hikes in sales among the smaller brands.
And, once again, just like in vodka there was growth from gins at different price points. The resurgent Greenall’s saw sales increase by 46%.
And Scottish gin did well. Caorunn was up 73%. Hendrick’s jumped 18% and Edinburgh Gin Raspberry Liqueur soared by 172%

Both the vodka and gin categories did well in 2014, growing ahead of the rate of inflation. In vodka Glen’s and Smirnoff are both responding to demand for special vodkas. Russian Standard vodka was up 32% last year and Scottish gins such as Caorunn, Hendrick’s and Edinburgh Gin Raspberry liqueur showed major growth.

Scotland’s top off-trade vodkas by sales value :

Rank	Brand	MAT £000s to w/e 04.01.14	MAT £000s to /we 03.01.15	% Change
	Total vodka (inc flavoured)	183,393	191,742	5
1	Smirnoff Red Label	66,566	70,535	6
2	Glen's	64,642	66,825	3
3	Russian Standard	9,458	12,503	32
4	Absolut Vodka Original	2,588	2,991	16
5	Vladivar Classic	2,149	2,843	32
6	Green Mark Russian Vodka	1,660	2,190	32
7	Grey Goose	1,320	1,852	40
8	Selekt	1,437	1,396	-3
9	Red Square	1,568	954	-39
10	Smirnoff Gold Cinnamon	585	785	34
11	Absolut Raspberri	596	758	27
12	Finlandia	516	550	7
13	Smirnoff Lime	624	533	-15
14	Smirnoff Green Apple	432	438	1
15	Zubrowka Bison Vodka	326	413	27

Scotland’s top off-trade gins by sales value :

Rank	Brand	MAT £000s to w/e 04.01.14	MAT £000s to /we 03.01.15	% Change
	Total Gin	43,031	45,513	6
1	Gordon’s	21,119	22,553	7
2	Bombay Sapphire	3,674	4,014	9
3	Greenall’s Original	1,418	2,072	46
4	Tanqueray	1,376	1,797	31
5	Hendrick's	919	1,087	18
6	Caorunn	299	516	73
7	Gordon’s Crisp Cucumber	506	357	-29
8	Beefeater Gin	322	316	-2
9	Blackwood’s Vintage Dry Gin	233	244	5
10	Gordon’s Elderflower		227
11	Bombay Dry Gin		225
12	Richmond London Dry Gin	603	171	-72
13	Grosvenor London	147	163	11
14	Plymouth	160	150	-6
15	Edinburgh Raspberry Gin	51	138	172

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The figures in Scottish Grocer’s exclusive Scottish off-trade’s most valuable brands guide are provided by leading market research company Nielsen. Figures are Nielsen ScanTrack for total Scottish off-trade and are moving annual totals (MATs) for the year to 3 January 2015 and are compared to the MATs for the previous year – to 4 January 2014.