Johnnie Walker crowned as world’s top performing spirit brand in new industry report

Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks company, is pleased to announce that four of its brands feature amongst the top 10 performing spirits brands in the world, as ranked by the IWSR/just-drinks ‘World’s Top Performing Spirits Brands’ report released today. Diageo is also the leading brand owner within the report, with a total of 19 brands featured in the rankings.

The report evaluates the brands through a combination of The IWSR’s performance rankings – based on volume, retail value and five-year growth – and a just-drinks reader survey of industry opinion of the best-performing brands of 2010.

Both the IWSR’s research and the reader survey data confirm that, in Johnnie Walker, Diageo holds the undisputed leading brand in the global spirits market. Smirnoff is ranked second in the report, with Captain Morgan and Baileys appearing fifth and eighth respectively.

Johnnie Walker Blended Scotch Whisky was identified as the brand with the most growth potential in the just-drinks reader survey. For year ended 30 June 2011, Johnnie Walker reported organic net sales and volume growth of 11% and was the biggest contributor to total Diageo net sales growth, with the fastest growth coming from super deluxe variants, up 25%.

Gavin Pike, Global Brand Director Johnnie Walker, said: “Johnnie Walker has been a truly international brand for a very long time, having been available in 100 countries from as early as 1920. Reasons for its success of course start with the great liquid, but the astute marketing acumen and advertising have helped to build the iconic value of the brand.”

Smirnoff, which is ranked the number one premium spirit brand in the world by volume, (Impact databank February 2011) is showing strong performance in Diageo’s key emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. Michelle Klein, VP Global Content and Communications for Smirnoff, said: “We’ve successfully built the Smirnoff brand through a combination of unbeatable liquid quality and pioneering marketing and innovation. Through our marketing we seek to find the most exciting and engaging ways to connect with our consumers, from global platforms such as The Nightlife Exchange Project to strong local market initiatives like ‘Master of the Mix’ in North America. ”