Scots gin a tonic for drinks market

The firm, which only launched its premium Caorunn Scottish Gin 18 months ago, will this month launch into the Australian market, having signed a deal with the country's largest drinks distributor.

The chance to take a place within the stable of drinks managed by Suntory Australia became available after Caorunn's fellow Scottish rival, Hendrick's, dropped out to join a distributor set up by its owner, William Grant & Sons.

With a somewhat complex ownership, Caorunn is produced by Inver House, which is owned by South East Asian drinks group ThaiBev, through its international drinks arm International Beverage.

David Lind, marketing director of International Beverage, said the firm had also launched in the world's number-one gin market, the US, last month and has set its sights on Spain.

"Gin used to be quite unfashionable but there is a renewed interest in it," he said. "There's a bit more history to it and a real story with its heritage in the UK."

At the start of the year, family-controlled William Grant, which also owns Glenfiddich and Grant's Scotch whisky, began its own distribution business, WGS Australia.

Australia is among the world's top seven markets for the relatively new category of drinks known as premium gin, an area pioneered by William Grant when it launched Hendrick's in 1999.

Inver House, which also produces Old Pulteney single malt, launched its own "celtic botanicals" gin more recently, but it has already taken the number-three spot for sales in the UK behind Hendrick's, which is number one, and Diageo's Tanqueray Ten, at number two.

Caorunn, produced at Inver House's Balmenach Distillery in Speyside, took the top award in the super premium category of The Gin Masters competition the same year it launched.

While Scotland is associated worldwide with whisky, it is less known for being one of the world's largest producers of gin. Diageo's best-selling "normal" brand gins, Gordon's and Tanqueray, are both produced at Diageo's Cameronbridge grain distillery in Fife and packaged in Leven.

Last year, the premium gin market in the UK reached sales of 33,000 cases, according to International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR). But with sales growing so fast, competition is fierce.

In Islay, the Bruichladdich Distillery launched the island's first gin last year, The Botanist, while Stirling-based VC2 Brands introduced Boe Superior Gin little more than a year ago.Another Fife-based drinks maker, Spencerfield, set up by former Glenmorangie marketing director Alex Nicol, last year launched Edinburgh Gin.

Mal Spence, head bartender at the Blythswood Square hotel in Glasgow, said drinkers were embracing gin as they moved away from the blandness of vodka.

"The gin market has exploded in recent years and seen numerous new products launched year-on-year," he said.

"New gins tend to be lighter on the juniper than the old classics such as Tanqueray and Plymouth, and it's this approach which has opened up the market to a wider audience.

"It is less about a move away from vodka to gin and more about a move away from vodka altogether. I think the general consumer has become rather subdued by vodka's neutrality - how many times can you paint the walls of your house white before it becomes mundane?

"Gin is an automatic switch. It's almost like an infused vodka, so doesn't present too much of a challenge to former vodka drinkers in the way, say, a whisky would."