Speciality spirits: Success for sambuca

"Sambuca is an Italian aniseed-flavoured, usually colourless liqueur. Its most common variety is often referred to as white sambuca in order to differentiate it from derivative spirits that are deep blue in colour (known as black sambuca) or bright red (red sambuca)." ​

So states Wikipedia. If you put that description in front of your average licensee, and asked them if they would like to stock said product, they would probably laugh you out of the door.

But Sambuca really is delivering unexpected success. For example, and I'm not normally one for making bold predictions, exactly three years ago I started to hear a lot of buzz from retailers about the growing success of the sambuca category. So I wrote: "If I was to put my house on any category for 2005 it would be sambuca."

I was making that statement on advice as it made little sense to me. Sambuca was one of those shot brands wheeled out by the more adventurous of my friends while I was a student.

And in my view was good for little else. And yet in the last 12 months it has proved to be one of the most successful categories in the spirits market in pubs.

Cath Rigby, marketing manager for Luxardo at Cellar Trends, says the category is beginning to score some big hits in the on-trade market.

"The brand is still in growth and in fact we are seeing that across the whole category," she says. "According to Nielsen statistics sambuca has actually climbed above tequila in terms of volume sales." Why has it been successful

1. Investment ​

There has been a major slice of investment that has come from the main two brands in the category over the last three to four years, both above-the-line advertising and a lot of below-the-line support, through point-of-sale and promotions.

It has for the first time encouraged brand loyalty and increased category knowledge.

2. Making the market a two-horse race ​

It is one of the oldest rules in retail - any category that is ruled by a monopoly doesn't see the kind of dynamic growth that competition brings.

Jeremy Hill, managing director of Hi-Spirits, which is responsible for Antica Sambuca, believes that the launch of Antica in 2003 helped give the sambuca category a real shot in the arm.

"Sambuca has grown because there is now competition in the market. There was a time when it was dominated by Luxardo - but it had no brand call or loyalty," he points out.

"Antica came into the market charging less per bottle and it worked because retailers found people were in fact just asking for sambuca as opposed to Luxardo. And it is doing well for everyone in the category. We sold 1.25 million bottles of Antica last year."

3. Wide consumer appeal ​

Much like cider at the moment there is no doubt the product doesn't suffer from being trapped in a close association with a particular market segment, be it with young or old consumers or male or female.

It sits neatly across most consumer groups. "I think most people actually enjoy the taste of sambuca and it is a very social drink," says Cath Rigby from Cellar Trends. "There has been a lot of investment in the category and it has real cross-gender appeal."