The market for flavoured white spirits has seen a lot of activity this year, not least in the US where the market is growing at around 25 per cent a year.
In the last few months alone we have reported on the launch of a green apple variant for Smirnoff and the introduction of a pear-infused gin under the Beefeater brand, and now two new products have been added to the popular Stolichnaya vodka range.
Stolichnaya has been much in the news in its home market of Russia after the Moscow authorities reversed the privatisation agreement which had handed control of the brand to Cyprus-based SPI. While SPI now has no rights to the brand in Russia itself - although it continues to protest against the alleged illegality of the authorities' decision - it is determined to protect its position in export markets, where it, and its partners, have invested heavily in promoting the brand.
In the US, SPI's partner is Allied Domecq, and it is this company which is the driving force behind the introduction of the new 1.75-litre bottles for two of the most popular Stolichnaya flavours, Stoli Razberi and Stoli Vanil.
AD said that the imported vodka category in the US had grown by 58 per cent in the past five years, with flavoured vodka in particular proving extremely popular, rising 191 per cent during the same period. The British company cited data which it claimed showed that Stoli Vanil and Stoli Razberi (in the more traditional 750ml size) had shown the greatest increases in sales among all imported flavoured vodkas in the last six months, one of the main reasons for the addition of the new pack size.
"The 1.75-litre introduction offers Stoli flavoured vodka consumers the opportunity to buy more for their dollars while getting more of their favourite product for a variety of drinking occasions," said Virginia Morris, senior brand manager for Stolichnaya in the US. "We know that Stoli consumers are extremely loyal and the 1.75-litre option will come as welcome news for our dedicated purchasers."
Stolichnaya first introduced its flavoured line in the late 1970s with Limonnaya and has since grown and enhanced the line with great success with Stolichnaya Ohranj, Strasberi, Razberi and Vanil each increasing in sales yearly since their inception. The company claims to offer the widest variety of flavours in the vodka category.