According to IWSR Magazine, global travel retail spirits market volume grew by +2.5% to 22.1m cases in 2014, growing by an additional 537,000 (nine-litre equivalent) cases.

 

However, while IWSR’s authors and analysts point out that while growth rates remain slow, volumes have nevertheless risen at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% since 2010 – representing an improvement on the +1.4% increase seen in the previous year.

 

ISWR adds that the world’s top 10 travel retail spirits brand ranking table is also virtually unchanged since last year, with Diageo’s Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky brand still leading all others with 2.25m cases – having added another 47,000 cases in 2014.

 

By contrast, Finlandia Vodka dropped out of the top 10 largely due to the drop in sales to Russians and this made way for the Scotch whisky brand Famous Grouse to move up into the top 10.

 

 

The magazine adds that ‘the most notable trend in the sector during 2014’ was the strong recovery in Scotch whisky volumes: 217,000 cases of Scotch were added, accounting for 40% of all additional spirits volumes in the travel-retail channel.

 

It also notes that in 2014 Scotch recovered from declines in 2013 to surpass its 2012 levels, as 16 of the Scotch brands in the top 100 grew in volume – all led by Johnnie Walker.

 

The Walker brand’s growth was mainly achieved thanks to additional sales in Africa and the Middle East and also due to ‘recovery’ in Asian markets.

 

According to Diageo: “Across GTME (Global Travel Retail Middle East), Diageo brands gained share particularly in whisk(e)y, led by Johnnie Walker in Global Travel Asia, where premium-and-above variants drove the brand’s net sales growth.”

 

 

The top five fastest growing brands in global travel retail in 2014 compared to the previous year were (in order) Hennessy (+12.9%); Smirnoff (+10.6%); Chivas Regal (+3.8%); Jack Daniel’s (+3.1%); and Johnnie Walker (+2.1%).

 

The comprehensive 100 travel retail spirits brand league table is exclusively available in IWSR Magazine’s October issue. Besides its extensive domestic market reports and reviews on the wines and spirits industry and IWSR magazine itself, the organisation also produces a Duty Free/Travel Retail Summary Report 2015, which presents a global overview of duty-free trends from 2009 to 2014.

 

The authors say it includes data by category, region, channel and quality, as well as rankings of the leading brands, suppliers, outlets and retailers.