Berry Bros & Rudd aims high in Asia with spirits brands(3)
Roberts himself has conducted hundreds of tastings over the past two years, aiming to employ a healthy dose of humour as he takes his pupils through all the elements of the whisky. He observed that many airport hosts will never have tasted a single malt Scotch in their lives, so he must often start the education process from square one.
This “education, education, education” strategy seems to be effective. Although originally established in 1879, The Glenrothes brand was only launched into travel retail in 2009. Today, The Glenrothes is making headway in the channel, and is carried by major airport retailers in Taiwan, at Taoyuan, with EverRIch and Tasa Meng; Hong Kong International, with Sky Connection; and Singapore Changi with DFS Group – where the brand’s performance is “really strong”.
A new listing with King Power Group at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi was recently confirmed to The Moodie Report. Another prized new listing is with China Duty Free Group – “we’re in all the right stores”, enthused Roberts.
“We’ve had a great start to the year. Sales have grown +300% over the past year,” enthused Roberts, who is based in Shanghai and speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. “We expect to grow strongly in the next two to three years, driven by education – building brands by education and tastings – value-added, strong pricing and great promotion. Quality and service underpin everything we do.”
In terms of promotions, The Glenrothes 100ml miniatures – larger than the usual miniature, and described by Roberts as a “double double” – are used frequently as gwps and are sold in packs of three, offering a sample of each whisky in The Glenrothes travel retail range. A new product development is a limited-edition run of 210 cigar humidors containing eight miniatures that will be available later this year.
A recent, successful promotion comprised a competition staged in the domestic and travel retail arena called Whisky Maker, which selected four lucky winners from around the globe to experience the traditional Scottish lifestyle of hunting, shooting and fishing – not forgetting salmon- and haggis-eating.
Talking of future plans, the next year will be all about consolidation for The Glenrothes. “Over the next 12 months we want to make sure we’re successful in the places we’re already in,” asserted Roberts.
But, always with an eye on further expansion in Asia, BBR is keen to tackle the Indian market in the next 12 months, and discussions are already under way with a potential partner.
