Tito’s continues on the expansion trail and eyes Africa’s potential
Tito’s Handmade Vodka has expanded further into Africa and has argued that mixology and the power of digital will continue to play a part in the future of travel retail. db reports.
The US-based vodka company has had a busy few weeks as the team sits down with the drinks business at this year’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes, but that does not stop the company divulging something new.
Expansion
Speaking to db, Tito’s managing director of international operations John McDonnell said: “Our first container just landed in the country of Ghana and we just opened Ethiopia and Djibouti. So now we’re going to start expanding in Africa.”
McDonnell pointed out that Tito’s has already “expanded its footprint in South Africa, South America, Caribbean, Europe, Middle East and Asia” to great effect, but also admitted that there were big plans for the spirits company to go further and really get embedded within the market in a more meaningful way with a greater presence across GTR and told db: “Africa is, really, the next frontier.”
Cruises
Brands from across the alcoholic drinks sector have already shown they are looking into new opportunities to target consumers onboard cruise ships to boost sales. With this in mind, according to McDonnell there is nothing to fear for the brand when it comes to travel retail and he explained how the business has shown great strength upon cruises and assured that this will continue.
McDonnell told db: “We also just opened up Greece, duty free and we’re solid on cruises too, in fact, in every cruise line we’re good.”
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Mixability and versatility is key in GTR
In the IWSR’s Global Trends Report 2025, it spotlighted ow travel retail volumes, however, grew by +3% in 2024, a modest rebound, driven by demand for distinct, value-led experiences.
Taking the brand’s expansion and success into account, McDonnell mulled the company’s route-to-market and its strategy and admitted that the focus for Tito’s that had always worked for the Tito’s business was to showcase “how mixable it is” and to “use mixologists to do this”.
He explained: “We have mixologists all across Asia and Europe and the mixologists travel to neighbouring countries and do training seminars and guest shifts. That’s been a major focus the last two or three years.”
A duty free app would be welcomed
Describing how travel retail should move into the future, McDonnell also admitted that the marketplace could do more to appeal to next generation consumers and really start applying its thinking towards smartphone apps that could help boost sales. Indeed, since AI and new technologies have been playing an increasingly important role in understanding shopper behaviour, many sides of the retail sector have taken note. Add this to the fact that the IWSR recently highlighted how e-commerce remains a key growth channel, with global alcohol sales rising +2% in value in 2024 and there is further evidence to suggest that GTR could benefit from a more joined up approach to online purchases prior to arriving at travel retail hubs like airports and border stores to secure deals early.
He added: “I think that the first step that we need to take is for duty free to make a duty free app like Uber, where any consumer on their way to the airport can just hit on the app and say, I want to pre order a bottle of Tito’s, take a picture of their passport and their boarding pass, pay with their Apple Pay, and then the bottle is at the airplane waiting for them. I’ve been asking for this since pre-Covid. I did a whole presentation on this. You know, the consumer doesn’t understand that XYZ duty free operator has a website because to them, everything is duty free. They don’t know that there are different operators. Only shops and so we and all the airport authorities should be supporting this initiative, because they’d be getting a cut.”
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