CVH Spirits looks for ways to cruise into Asia
Scotland’s CVH Spirits, which is owned by investment group Remgro, has a plan to take its whisky portfolio further via travel retail. Jessica Mason reports.
Speaking to the drinks business at this week’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes, CVH Spirits, described the next steps it planned to take in global travel retail, with cruise ships as well as leveraging sales in Asia’s duty free becoming integral to its future.
CVH Spirits was established in 2023 following the acquisition of Distell by Heineken and has, since then, not stood still within the travel retail sector. Its key brands within its portfolio include the single malts Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Tobermory, and Ledaig alongside blended Scotch whiskies Black Bottle and Scottish Leader.
Describing its next plans, CVH Spirits head of global travel retail Lynsey Eades told db: “We do already have a global presence, but markets that we are really looking to open up in are regions like India, where there has been huge growth.”
Talks had already been afoot for the company and, as the show progressed, with business meetings taking place at the stand, CVH admitted that it was seeing a lot of promise in its ability to expand further east in travel retail very soon.
Brand owners from across the alcoholic drinks sector are looking more closely into new opportunities to target consumers onboard cruise ships to boost sales. The rising trend is set to see an influx of drinks products being touted to a captive audience of consumers considered to be a relatively untapped market.
The global cruise industry is additionally seeing a huge spike, giving rise to the sector being highly lucrative and an attractive proposition. Valued at US$7.4 billion in 2023, it is expected to reach US$22.6 billion by 2033, for a compound annual growth rate of 11.8% according to a report from Spherical Insights and Consulting.
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Eades told db: “Cruise companies like Harding, we’re already in discussions with, and hopefully we will use this show to finalise that with them.”
She explained: “We have amazing portfolios of blended whiskies. The big focus for us within that, though, is Bunnahabhain.”
According to Eades: “Asia is quite a stronghold” for the business but admitted that there were still pockets of Taiwan and Singapore” where the portfolio does “really well” and so that is where the company has sharpened its focus since it can already “see opportunities”.
Eades also pointed out that there was a great deal of promise around the travel retail sector “specifically around Korea too” due to there being “a high net spend” that can be “leveraged through our portfolio and the pricing architecture”.
She admitted: “In Europe, we have a core range that we’re listing but we do see that the economy isn’t the easiest, so we have more accessible products. Within Asia, there’s a higher net spend. So we have higher age statement products that we can use to reflect that.”
The cruise sector is certainly capturing more attention with brand owners, especially across the drinks industry. For instance, last year, US cruise company Holland America Line released its first own-brand fizz, produced in Washington’s Columbia Valley. Several other cruise lines have also joined the trend of creating their own drinks partnerships, including Oceania Cruises which partnered with whisky brand Chapter 7 to craft an exclusive 20-year-old small-batch cask of whisky to celebrate the launch of its new ship, Vista.
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