BlogSpirits & Wines

Introduction by: Peter Marshall

From the Highland Park ‘repositioning’ and The Macallan’s Time:Space showpiece to the single-minded pursuit of premiumisation, Edrington’s GTR MD Jeremy Speirs is on a roll, writes Kristiane Sherry. This is TRunblocked.com’s first major feature on Edrington and I think it provides an excellent read.


Six months is a long time in travel retail. In the period since Edrington Global Travel Retail opened its dual-branded shop-in-shop at Istanbul Airport in April, it’s released glowing financial results (a scarcity in the industry right now), simultaneously launched the oldest whisky from The Macallan alongside the first liquid from its new distillery, completely overhauled the Highland Park look-and-feel, and agreed the sale of The Famous Grouse.

And that’s just for starters. It’s no wonder that Jeremy Speirs, the company’s GTR MD, looks relieved to settle into the sofa on board the company yacht for our interview at last year’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes.

“We’ve had our best year by quite some way,” he tells me part-way through our conversation. We’re talking financial results. The numbers released in July show that value sales climbed 11% for the full year to 31 March 2024. Edrington isn’t publicly owned so it isn’t obliged to share the granular details that some of its competitors are compelled to. Even so, in a season where it’s generally acknowledged that Scotch is having a torrid time of it, the figure is striking.

“We continue to grow value over volume,” he says, matter of factly. It’s interesting – even if depletions are down, the focus on price and premiumisation is keeping the topline numbers elevated. He’s not surprised at all by the performance, and seems bemused that anyone else would be. “We’ve been premiumising as a company for the last couple of decades, to be honest, this is not a short term thing.” What has that looked like? Doubling investment since Covid struck. Activations, launch events, product rebrands (more on that later) and media spend have all been bolstered. “A lot of others were cutting back.” While he describes the Covid years as “dreadful”, the GTR business has bounced back robustly and is now “quite a long way ahead” of 2019.

But enough of looking back. What about this most recent year? “We actually outperformed the rest of the company within travel retail,” he stresses. “All brands, I would say, actually outperformed in GTR.” He puts that down to the launch of The Macallan Colour Collection, and constant, hyper-focused investment in key locations as passenger numbers rounded. “[There was] really strong double-digit growth for us in GTR last year.”

While in a follow up question Speirs was reluctant to disclose what proportion of sales travel retail accounts  for, he noted that it is one of Edrington’s largest. “Its impact extends beyond commercial significance,” he stressed. “Research indicates that airports are among the top three consumer touchpoints for driving brand equity and shaping perceptions, particularly for The Macallan.” It’s what underpins the stand-alone boutique strategy, he adds.

While momentum seems to still be with Edrington, business seems to have taken a slightly different shape in 2024. “We’ve certainly seen that slowdown continuing in domestic, and now it’s coming across into travel retail spending,” he admits. Chinese basket spend is down “quite a bit, about 40 or 50%”, and Speirs is responding by adapting availability and distribution. He notes there’s an “awful lot” of discounting coming from competitors. “We don’t play that game,” he asserts. The alternative? To stick to the premiumisation and investment strategy that’s served him well in 2023 and into 2024.

Does he think Edrington was over-exposed in Asia? “About half our business is in APAC,” he states. “We don’t feel like we are in any way over-invested.” Now it’s about tapping into the consumer journey and joining the dots regardless of nationality. He is, however, like many whisky execs, very excited about the potential from the travelling Indian consumer.

“Indian passengers are really interesting because, unlike the predominantly white-spirit drinking Chinese consumer, the Indian consumers are already very enthusiastic about brown spirits. This means there is less of an education piece to undertake. As such, it was a no-brainer to invest in a recently opened Macallan shop-in-shop in Delhi, and he’s got a close eye on Dubai, a key travel destination for the demographic, too.

Despite the potential downturn, GTR now commands about 15% of the allocation for prestige and ultra products, Speirs proudly states. “We used to have, I’d say, probably 8-9%,” he explains. “We’ve really proven our case and proven what we can do within this space.” The boutiques and shop-in-shops have “laid bare” the value to the channel. “In the right environment, with the right allocation, the right assortment, you can meet consumer demand and deliver amazing results.”

Istanbul Airport

Haitang Bay

Aside from the aforementioned The Macallan Colour Collection, a major milestone for the brand, both domestically and in GTR, was the unveiling of the architecturally arresting Time:Space. The show-stopping round bottle actually holds two liquids: the oldest ever released at 84 years old, and the first whisky bottled from the new distillery. The site opened its doors in 2018, and this inaugural expression is a five-year-old release. It’s a fitting addition to the 200th anniversary celebrations that have run all year.

“We wanted to do something really quite different, innovative, linked to a 200 Years Young campaign,” Speirs ventures.  “This felt a very fitting way of doing that, of bringing liquid that was laid down in 1940 during World War II, and liquid that was created and distilled in 2018 as the advent of the next 200 years, you could argue.”

How far away does he think we are from a 100-year-old whisky, and will The Macallan get there first? He chuckles. “I mean, this is our oldest ever,” he smiles. “This is 84, so is 100 beyond the realms of time? You know, it’s the Holy Grail for some. But we’re not driven by that, it’s just a number at the end of the day.”

I must have raised my eyebrows because he continued. “It may come or may not come in our lifetimes, I don’t know. It’s, I guess, to a point where there’s not a lot of whisky left after the angels have taken their share. So who knows, but yes, that will be special.”

For now, all eyes are on Orcadian single malt brand Highland Park. Up until now, its bold, Viking-inspired packaging has been critiqued as gaudy, cartoon-like. The dark labels and dramatic typefaces have certainly felt discordant with the much-lauded premiumisation strategy. No longer. Speirs and the team used the TFWA event in Cannes to showcase a new look for the lightly peated whisky, which is widely recognised as a quality whisky.

“The credentials of the brand are unquestionable, and we’ve always known that,” Speirs ventures. But the heavy Viking focus felt “one dimensional”, he added.

Martin Markvardsen, Highland Park brand ambassador (and the longest-serving on a single brand in the industry), chimed in. “I think what we missed when we talked about the Viking theme over the last 10, 12 years was our home,” he picks up.

The Vikings, he said, are a “very small” part of the whisky’s Orkney heritage. With the new look, he feels it “makes sense to go back and talk much more about where we are from, because it’s a unique place.”

Martin Markvardsen

What we have instead is a clean, stripped back, much lighter look. For GTR there are splashes of colour within the freshness that speak to the island’s geography, from its heather (which informs the honeyed element of the peat), the sea, and the sky.

There’s a new lexicon around the smoky profile, too. “Peat can be good, but it can definitely also scare people away,” Markvardsen continues. “That’s why we will talk much more about the heather than we talk about the peaty flavour.” The new design makes it easier to do that, he says.

The whiskies themselves are unchanged – and, aside from the 14-year-old shifting from a 1-litre to a 70cl bottle, there is “minimal” price difference.

The ‘Macallanisation’ of Highland Park has raised some eyebrows – and questions. Is the company taking these whiskies too far into the lifestyle space? Has The Macallan become a luxury name aligned with perhaps a fashion or automobile house, more than its spirited contemporaries?

“The Macallan has always been, and remains, a whisky brand at its core,” Speirs states. The focus is on whisky making, heritage, and the quality of the single malt, he stresses. “That said, we recognise that the world of luxury is evolving, and today’s consumers expect more than just a premium product – they seek a lifestyle experience that aligns with their values and aspirations.” As such, he adds, the luxury lifestyle element has been “thoughtfully integrated” into the strategy. Time will tell as to whether Highland Park follows in the footsteps.

And with the recent sale of The Famous Grouse to William Grant, which is going through all the regulatory necessities at the time of writing, it feels like Edrington’s premiumisation ambitions are being realised. There’s a pipeline of innovation coming, I’m told, that will reinforce this all the more.

The world of drinks moves fast. Now, in January 2025, almost a business quarter has passed since we spoke on that yacht in Cannes. The collective mood among whisky-makers hasn’t exactly lifted – many in the industry seem practically downbeat. Speirs checked back in with an Edrington update. While it doesn’t seem that he’s in a camp with the pessimists, he does strike a note of caution.

“There were clear signs of softening consumer spend and an overall slowdown in the market towards the back-end of 2024 and that trend looks set to continue throughout 2025,” he notes. “There is a lot of inventory sat with retailers which is leading many to implement aggressive price discounting as they look to stimulate sales.

“We are cautiously optimistic that we will see signs of recovery this year, but nonetheless the trading environment is going to be challenging over the coming months.” The year 2025 is shaping up to be interesting for sure.

 

Peter Marshall

Founder: trunblocked.com/Marshall Arts
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