US Tequila maker León Y Sol is looking to kickstart its international expansion with entry into Nigeria early next year, followed by Europe at a later stage.
The country will be the group’s first overseas market.
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Speaking to Just Drinks, CEO and majority shareholder of the business, Bobby Marhamat, said Nigeria was appealing given the group’s partnership with the global record label Empire, which has a presence there.
“They’ve been pulling our product into that market just kind of naturally,” he said.
While its Tequilas have been used in product placements in some of the record label’s music videos and events, January will mark the first time León Y Sol’s Tequilas have been sold in on- and off-premise in Nigeria, Marhamat said.
Set up two years ago, the California-headquartered business sells Tequila Blanco and Reposado and has recently launched a non-alcoholic agave-based spirit called NeQuila.
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By GlobalDataThe business will begin its launch in Nigeria with its alcohol Tequilas.
The group’s brand messaging also has a strong focus on being additive-free, a factor that has helped it gain interest in Nigeria specifically, according to Marhamat, especially amid the ongoing allegations Diageo has been facing around its Tequila purity claims.
“In that market, you’ve probably heard a lot of controversy now with Casamigos and Don Julio around their authenticity. [Those were] the main products that were in Nigeria. And given that we were there, there’s a natural pull into, ‘hey, we want actually authentic products.'”
According to a statement on the product launch last week, NeQuila is “the first-ever Tequila that starts with real tequila and is then artfully stripped of its alcohol”.
Leon Y Sol is also in talks to distribute in Europe, with Amsterdam in the Netherlands a target, Marhamat said.
Explaining how NeQuila is made, the CEO told Just Drinks the company had been working on the product for almost a year, and wanted to put something on the market that stood out from other non-alcoholic spirits by being free from additives.
“What we wanted to put in the market is not necessarily what you see with other non-alcoholic products.
“There’s nothing bad, right? But…they do use some colouring, they do some flavoring. We wanted to actually have a full-on Tequila product that has the alcohol extracted out, so you feel like…you’re getting a full-on agave product.”
Aside from international expansion, the group also looks to focus on its main market, the US. It will focus on New York, Louisiana and Vegas, where it has recently launched, and also looks to launch into six other states by the end of the year in the central part of the country, Marhamat added.
León Y Sol’s Tequila Blanco and Reposado are priced at $69 and $89, respectively, while its NeQuila costs $49. The group also plans to launch a Cristalino Tequila in the fourth quarter of this year priced at $129.
While the group’s non-alc NeQuila launched for pre-order at the start of August, the product will officially head to retailers and restaurants in the US in “early Q4”, said Marhamat.
All of the group’s products are distilled by third-party distillers in Jalisco. The business also owns an agave farm in the region.
