Vodka On A New Path

Tito’s Handmade vodka has been one of the world’s best performing over the past five years

POSITIVE MOMENTUM

Tito’s Handmade vodka has been one of the world’s best performing spirits brands of the past five years. IWSR reported that it overtook Smirnoff as the bestselling spirit in the US market in 2019, and it has continued to gain momentum ever since, while it now exports to most countries around the world. “Despite the fact that so many markets are still shut down, we’ve been pleased with the performance of Tito’s Handmade vodka during the Covid crisis,” says international managing director John McDonnell. “We’re particularly doing well in Middle Eastern markets, such as Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. And we just appointed a new distributor to represent the brand in Israel. We’re also seeing positive momentum in the Balkans and eastern Europe.” The team at Tito’s worked closely with its international distributors to pivot towards ecommerce retailers over the past year, which helped bolster its performance. It believes that retailers should pay less attention to craft gin and retrain their focus on vodka, due to its size and potential. “Tito’s Handmade vodka has been added to hundreds of online shops in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere – ecommerce, as we all know, has been vitally important during Covid,” says McDonnell. “Many of our distributors have also developed drink kits to help consumers prepare Tito’s cocktails at home – the kits come with a bottle of Tito’s Handmade vodka, recipes, and all the ingredients, etc. that you need to craft interesting, great-tasting cocktails at home. “Smart retailers, both domestic and duty free, recognize that they need to give more shelf space to craft vodkas. The more that continues to happen, the better the category will be poised for growth. There’s a disproportionate amount of space dedicated to craft gin, and not enough to craft vodka. That needs to change.”

Source: Drinks International