“There’s a lot of guesswork going on at drinks brands” – James Stocker, marketing director at Halewood Artisanal Spirits

Halewood Artisanal Spirits has undergone something of a transformation since shifting its focus away from carbonates and into more premium-positioned spirits over the past decade. The decision to major in gin – at a time when the category was flourishing in the UK – has driven the company to become the sixth-largest branded spirits supplier in the country. The family-owned group now exports to 75 markets internationally and posted full-year revenues of GBP396m (US$472m) in June 2021. With the gin category showing signs of a slowdown in the UK, the group’s biggest market, focus has been broadened towards also growing its presence in rum (Dead Man’s Fingers) vodka (JJ Whitley) and whisk(e)y (Aber Falls, Crabbie’s & Co and Samuel Gelstons). At a media briefing in London, Just Drinks caught up with Halewood’s marketing director James Stocker to find out more about the company’s strategy and priorities for the years to come. Just Drinks: Much of your success in the past few years has been down to the strength of your Whitley Neill gin brand. With signs the category is beginning to slow (domestically, at least), how do you hope to maintain your momentum? Halewood Artisanal Spirits marketing director James Stocker: The good news is that even as the category is declining we are holding our market share. There are some brands declining but that isn’t us. We’ve got to continue to innovate and look carefully at things like different flavour trends to stay ahead of the curve. We’ve also been innovating in London Dry – a year ago we had one expression, and now we have four. RTDs will also play a part and we are going to be entering that space with a gin-based product later this year. We also need to make sure that we are continuing to invest behind the Whitley Neill brand in terms of marketing activity. Last Christmas, we launched our first-ever TV and cinema campaign and we will continue to invest money in that area, as well as in-outlet activations in supermarkets, bars, etc. Halewood's growth has been driven by the performance of its flagship Whitley Neill gin brand. JD: With the launch of your Aber Falls single malt, forthcoming liquid from John Crabbie & Co., and Dead Man’s Fingers’ extensions into Tequila and cream-liqueurs, you’ve got a pretty well-rounded portfolio within spirits now. Are there any gaps you’re still looking to plug, either through M&A or further NDP? JS: We will continue to innovate. One of the areas that we think we are strong at is in our ability to act quickly. Five years ago we had a fast-growing gin in Whitley Neill but not too much in vodka, rum, or whisk(e)y and we’ve now got a big, successful brand in vodka in JJ Whitley, in rum - particularly in spiced and flavoured - in Dead Man’s Fingers and the beginnings of what we believe is going to be a fantastic whisk(e)y portfolio as well. JD: Why did you decide to major on Aber Falls as the showcase/flagship in your whisk(e)y range, as opposed to a Scottish brand like Crabbie & Co.? JS: Truthfully the main reason is that it was the first whisky that was ready! Our Crabbie’s whisky is not going to be ready until next year, likewise with the Bankhall [Halewood is planning to launch a Bourbon-style US whiskey distilled in Blackpool in 2023]. Aber has hit its three years now. We think it is very important to be able to talk about where the whisky is made, and its provenance, and with Aber Falls we can do that because we've made it. JD: On the broader whisky category, what do you see as the prospects for English and Welsh whisky? Should Scotch producers be worried? JS: English and Welsh whisky is still very small but there are some great whiskies being made in both nations. People have traditionally thought about Scottish, Irish and maybe American as the main whisk(e)y producers, but now we’re seeing Japanese, Taiwanese versions coming to the fore. Whisk(e)y is becoming a world drink and there is a lot of other really great liquid being made in other parts of the world. Aber Falls is the flagship of Halewood's whisk(e)y portfolio. JD: What are the advantages of being able to work outside of the tighter definitions set by Scotch? JS: We can experiment and innovate a lot more. We’ve got some Welsh whisky maturing in maple oak barrels, for example. It gives us a great deal of freedom to do things a little bit differently. We may at some point want to blend some of our Scottish whisky with our Welsh or English liquid as well. We’ve got a great traditional Scottish whisky maturing, and then some different, innovative whiskies in England and Wales. JD: Turning to your Dead Man’s Fingers brand, you’ve used it as a vehicle to enter new categories including Tequila and cream liqueurs in recent times. Why did you decide to do this rather than create a new brand entirely? JS: Dead Man’s Fingers is a brand that likes to break rules and to do things a little bit differently. Traditional logic suggests that if you are a rum brand, you can create rum-based extensions to that brand, and we are doing that. But what we found was that a lot of our consumers of Dead Man’s Fingers were also very engaged with Tequila, so, for us, it was natural – especially given the ‘rule-breaking’ personality of the brand. We felt if we could present a Tequila offering in a familiar brand to them then that would represent a good way to convert our existing Dead Man’s Fingers consumers. JD: Do you think there’s the possibility Halewood might look to launch another Tequila line as a standalone, given the growth in Tequila is more at the super-premium end of the spectrum? JS: Potentially. Dead Man’s Fingers is still a premium brand - the parent part of the Dead Man’s Fingers brand retails at GBP21 (US$25) when it is not on promotion. That’s generally where we’d like to keep the range at. In Tequila there is definitely a growing interest. Our expression is a Reposado - it has been aged in oak so it is not a cheap product. JD: You’ve recently launched a range of Dead Man’s Fingers RTDs. Could we see a Tequila-based RTD next? JS: We’re keeping a watch-out. We want to grow our Dead Man’s Fingers Tequila variant(s). One of the challenges - and one that everyone is facing right now - is there is limited supply of product. It’s a big category in the US and in Mexico, and is beginning to grow over here. Last month, Halewood announced a line of three Dead Man's Fingers RTDs JD: In terms of current supply-chain pressures, are you seeing any differences in your ability to pass cost pressures onto the consumers in different lines within your range? JS: Across our portfolio, we have got different products at different price points in different categories. In gin, we have got Whitley Neill which retails at GBP26 (US$31), and our JJ Whitley London Dry, which retails at GBP16 (US$19) for a 70cl bottle. In whisky, we now have the added advantage that we are making our own liquid, and not buying it in from anyone else, which helps to insulate us a bit from cost pressures. It is quite difficult to know how this is all going to pan out. There is a lot of pressure on disposable income at the moment. One of the things we are confident about is our adaptability as a company to see us through what could be a challenging few months ahead. JD: What are the biggest priorities for Halewood from a marketing perspective in the next twelve months? JS: Accelerating our growth internationally. We’re a company that has a great foothold in the UK but we need to grow overseas. So that is a key objective for us from both a marketing and a sales perspective. The other area, having gone through the hiatus of Covid, is building back in the on-premise. Everyone took a hit while that was shut and we need to build back up to where we were previously, and then further still. JD: What are the things that are currently keeping you awake at night (from a business perspective!)? JS: Not knowing and trying to figure out what things are going to look like in six months’ time. How are consumers going to behave as the cost-of-living crisis bites? We think we’ve got an idea, but there are always going to be things around the corner that are going to take us by surprise. When that does happen we need to be quick at spotting it and then be able to adapt quickly and innovate in response. There is an uncertainty to all of this - we don’t know exactly how the consumer is going to act. Are they - for example - like we saw in 2008, going to drink less but continue to drink good quality products? Or will we see consumers trading down? Personally, I think we will see a bit of both. With the cost of utilities going up that is going to particularly hit people on lower incomes, and those consumers will have a decision to make about whether they buy less frequently, or down-trade. For those who are a bit more insulated, I think we’ll see them being cautious and buying premium brands, but buying a bit less frequently. There’s a lot of guesswork going on at a lot of drinks brands right now, trying to work out what consumers are going to be doing in six or seven months’ time.