The IWSR Drinks Market Analysis Global Database has been released recently and details the world’s top 100 fastest growing spirits brands, categorised by their respective case volume growth in 2018.
The data shows that list of the top 100 fastest growing brands collectively grew by 10.8 per cent, compared to total global category growth of just 0.8 per cent last year.
Those 100 leading brands, across all the major spirits categories, represent 690.5m nine-litre cases of the world’s total 3.17bn cases of spirits.
ISWR CEO, Mark Meek said: “Though we saw a decline in beer and wine consumption last year, brands in the spirits category continue to enjoy great consumer loyalty.
“It’s particularly interesting to see the growth of gin brands, the category which experienced the largest gain in global beverage alcohol consumption in 2018.”
The fastest growing brand is also the top-selling spirit brand in the world, with Korea’s Jinro soju growing 6.4 per cent to a total of 80.9m cases. The IWSR points out that Jinro sells 47m more cases than the next largest brand in the world, Officer’s Choice whisky, which sold 33.8m cases last year, an increase of 5.6 per cent.
The majority of brands that top the list of fastest-growing are national or regional products, including soju, baijiu, and Indian whisky.
While Jinro is the world’s fastest growing spirit brand, looking at particular categories highlights a mixture of local and international brands recording high levels of growth.
The fastest growing whisky is Pernod Ricard’s Imperial Blue Whisky, which is an Indian whisky. Tanduay Rum from the Philippines is the fastest growing rum and Magic Moments Vodka, another Indian brand is the fastest growing vodka. Diageo has both the fastest growing gin and brandy in Gordon’s and McDowell’s respectively, while the fastest growing flavoured spirit is Aperol, reflecting the global ‘spritz’ trend.
Diageo also owns the fastest growing agave-based spirit in Don Julio Tequila.
In terms of the number of brands in the top 100, Diageo is out in front owning 21 of the top 100, ahead of Pernod-Ricard with eight, although it does own two of the top three fastest growing brands and despite evidence pointing to a global decline in vodka consumption, Russian spirits producer Roust owns five of the top 100 fastest growing brands, all of which are vodka brands.
Below is the full list of the top 100 fastest growing spirit brands:
