GLOBAL: Johnnie Walker heads IWSR/just-drinks rankings for second year

Diageo Scotch whisky brand Johnnie Walker has retained its position as the number one brand on the latest IWSR/just-drinks Performance Brands rankings, published this month.

Johnnie Walker came top of a ranking of 124 spirits brands, based on overall market volume, per-case average and five-year (2006-2011) growth, with a total score of 341. The blended Scotch came in ahead of LVMH's Hennessy Cognac with 339 points, Pernod Ricard's Chivas Regal with 329, Brown-Forman's Jack Daniel's with 326 and Pernod's Jameson with 306.

Johnnie Walker was also the highest rated brand in the just-drink reader’s survey - published in the same report - in terms of ‘Brand Strength’ with an average rating of 4.65 out of a possible score of 5:00. Diageo also had the largest number of brands in the list with 21, followed by Pernod on 18, Beam and Bacardi with ten each, William Grant & Sons with six, Rémy Cointreau with five and Brown-Forman, Campari and Edrington all with four. LVMH had three brands in the list, while some 24 companies had just one brand ranked.

The Scotch whisky category had the largest number of entries, with 33 brands featuring in the ranking, while vodka had the second-highest number with 21. Twelve rums, ten non-Scotch whiskies, seven Tequila brands and six gins also made the ranking.

Only five Cognacs made the list but three of those – Hennessy, Remy Cointreau's Remy Martin and Pernod's Martell - are in the top ten.

For further details on the report, click here.