Can a local whisky compete against U.S. or Scotch brands
Brown-Forman Canada has launched a new Canadian whisky in Ontario liquor stores, a product the company hopes will boost interest in the flagging product category.
Collingwood Canadian Whisky, which hit LCBO shelves this month, includes in its ingredients list Georgian Bay spring water and Ontario-grown corn.
According to Brad Fletcher, country manager for Brown-Forman Canada, the company’s proprietary distilling process that uses toasted Maplewood creates a product that is smoother than most competitors in the Canadian whisky category.
Fletcher said Brown-Forman began developing the new product several years ago after noticing that Canadian whisky was under-performing in the marketplace. “To be honest, Canadian whisky has not lived up to the other segments in the whisky category, like Irish, American or Scotch,” Fletcher said. “It hasn’t been dynamic. It hasn’t been vibrant or sexy.
“We thought there was an opportunity here to liven things up in the segment. We started talking to liquor boards and they expressed immense interest in bringing some new product offerings to the category.”
Fletcher said Ontario would serve as a test market for Collingwood Canadian Whisky and described the product’s summer introduction as a “soft launch” promoted mainly through in-store displays and sampling.
He added that a print advertising campaign will launch shortly and ramp up in the fall as liquor boards in other markets, including B.C., begin stocking Collingwood Canadian Whisky. Creative was developed in-house at Brown-Forman’s headquarters in Kentucky.
Fletcher also said Brown-Forman would actively promote the product during the LCBO’s Whisky Month event in October. “We’re utilizing [Whisky Month] as the catalyst to bring awareness to consumers and that’s when you’re going to be seeing a lot more of us.”
Fletcher said the municipality of Collingwood, Ont., as well as the provincial and federal governments and Grain Farmers of Ontario, have all indicated an interest in using the new product as part of their own marketing and public relations initiatives, including tourism-related activities.
