The Power 100: The World’s Most Valuable Wine and Spirits Brands 2008

Smirnoff No.1 again…Scotland increases its lead… Johnnie Walker overtakes Bacardi…

Intangible Business has today released its annual league table of the world’s most powerful spirits and wine brands in 2008. The world’s leading independent brand valuation consultancy, which works extensively in the drinks industry, researched nearly 10,000 spirit and wine brands across the globe to produce the Power 100, now in its third year.

The league table, which assesses both the financial contribution of each brand alongside their strength in the eyes of the consumer, has been compiled by combining scores from a panel of some of the world’s leading drinks industry experts with hard data. This year’s top 10 are:

The Top 10
1.  Smirnoff  
2.  Johnnie Walker 
3. Bacardi   
4.  Martini  
5. Hennessy 
6.  Absolut  
7.  Jack Daniels  
8.  Chivas Regal 
9.  Baileys
10. Ballantines 

With the lucrative cocktail market showing no sign of waning the report identifies Smirnoff as the most valuable brand, closely followed by fellow Diageo brand Johnnie Walker, which overtook Bacardi, third, for the first time this year. 

The Power 100 also includes a ranking for countries of origin in which Scotland takes the top position, increasing its stranglehold on the market despite having just 14 brands in the top 100, against the USA (second) which has 21 and France (third) which has 17.

The report also identifies key issues that the industry will face this year including:

• US/World Economy: The current economic slowdown will inevitably impact the global drinks market but the extent of its impact remains unclear. Recent figures reveal that American consumers are already reducing their number of shopping trips as they begin to feel the pinch of an economic downturn.
• Consolidation vs. Innovation: The trend for consolidation has continued in 2008 with Pernod Ricard in the process of swallowing up Vin & Sprit. Pernod Ricard will soon complete its acquisition of the Absolut brand, creating a gulf between leaders Diageo and Pernod Ricard and the rest of the drinks industry.
• Brand Depth: The Scotch category, led by Johnnie Walker and the winning combination of Ballantines and Chivas Regal, is rapidly encroaching on the vodka category. This indicates that the vodka category may have reached a plateau and the drinks groups will need to look beyond the next flavour of vodka to generate growth. 
• New World vs. Old World: As French wines fail to tap into a segment of the market that the new world wines have excelled in a testing year lies ahead for old world wines. French wine manufacturers will need to follow the example of their native Champagne brands and build strong brands around their heritage.

Now in its third year, The Power 100 is also able to identify movement amongst brands over the last 12 months.  Those which have significantly shifted in position include:

• 2rd – Johnnie Walker: Over the past few years Johnnie Walker has gone from strength to strength with a total score increase of 20% in 2008. It has replaced Bacardi as the world’s second most powerful spirit brand and its continued growth threatens to knock Smirnoff off the number one spot in 2009. 
• 7th – Patron: Patron has taken a giant leap up to number 35 this year after becoming one of the fastest growing drinks brands of the past year.

Other brands receiving significant score increases were Hennessy, Jim Beam and Hardys. The brands experiencing the biggest downward shift this year include:

• 93rd – Larios – dropped twenty three positions
• 59th – 100 Pipers – dropped twenty two positions
• 56th – Kahlua – dropped eight positions

Says Stuart Whitwell, Joint Managing Director of Intangible Business and panellist: “Creating the Power 100 has once again been a fascinating, valuable exercise. Despite the threat of global economic demise, the drinks industry has a history of remaining buoyant in such times and I am looking forward to another exciting year ahead.”

Whitwell continues: “2008 will see two major battles for supremacy. The first will be a Smirnoff vs Johnnie Walker battle within Diageo and the second will be industry-wide. Pernod Ricard’s acquisition of Absolut, forces the other major players, Beam Global, Bacardi, Brown Forman and LVMH, to react. Further consolidation and acquisitions are inevitable - watch this space!”