The US market looms large for South African ‘tequila’ producer Agave, which has won the rights to market its Agave Blue and wooded Agave Gold in that country.
FTA approval has been given for the labels and content. Politics prevents the South Africans from calling the product tequila, but its name and the shape of the bottle portrays the contents.
With the small South African tequila market saturated it was important for Agave Distillers, owned by the McLachlan family, to expand.
They have appointed SA Wine and Liquor (llc) in Atlanta as their agents. SAWL was in turn appointing distributors in various states on the eastern seaboard, but was also talking to potential distributors in California and Texas, the two largest consumers of tequila.
Executive chairman and marketer for the company, Keith McLachlan, said: “We will start off slowly in the US, test the water and then develop from there.
“We will go into that market at between 35 and 40% lower than Jose Cuervo, which sells at between US$19 and US$23.
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“At this stage we will still maintain our strategy of bottling 50% of our product and selling 50% of it to Mexico where it is blended in with some leading brands,” said McLachlan.
