RTDs: Global Brands boss sticks to what he's good at

Welcome to the weird world of Global Brands.

The company known for its own Ready-To-Drink (RTD) Vodka Kick (VK) range was, this time last year, widely assumed to be switching its focus to premium packaged lagers (PPLs) and spirits.

While VK was every bit as garish and outlandishly marketed as its competitors in a category in an apparent nosedive, the likes of beer brands Viru and Carib were as niche and exotic as you could get in an imported beer market on the rise. Octagonal bottles and promotional branded straw hats were all the rage.

Twelve months on and the beer brands have gone, a series of disasters with distribution agreements leading Global Brands managing director Steve Perez to conclude: "I was basically naïve to go into relationships without proper secure contracts."

Flagship range​

However, while Perez claims big successes with spirits agreements such as the deal with Diageo for the distribution rights to Myers Rum and Goldschläger, the nay-sayers have been proved wrong.

Global Brands' flagship range of RTDs remains one of the stalwarts of a category, that - as pointed out elsewhere in these pages - is stabilising and being dominated by a few key brands.

The main development that has led to Global Brands retaining its position among RTDs has been the launch of VK Mojito earlier this year. This is a hybrid product - a cocktail in a bottle based on the VK brand.

Perez explains that he has been happy for VK Mojito to take sales away from VK - as long as it replaces them with greater sales, of course.

He says: "A few people have said 'if we put Mojito in, we want to take something out'. I think that's fine because this RTD thing is a moveable feast.

"We won't produce 12 flavours because once the sales go below a certain level, you're better off ditching it, even though you might get some retailer resistance. What it will encourage people to do is stock another flavour, which will sell better."

The willingness to piggy-back on other drinks trends, launching VK imitators to appeal to other categories' consumers, seems to be the main factor in Global Brands' success with RTDs. The ever-changing list of VK flavours means that only Ice and Blue remain from the original list of products when VK first launched.

In their stead have come many more. It continues with the launches recently of VK Apple and VK Pear, designed to tap into the cider craze.

Perez puts his faith in the future of RTDs. "Was it Mark Twain who said 'reports of the death of RTDs have been greatly exaggerated'?" he asks. It's not every RTD brand owner who paraphrases satirical American novelists to end an interview.

Global Brands on responsible drinking

RTDs have been one of the targets, perhaps more than any other drinks category, of the current respon-sible drinking crusade.

But Perez claims the teams that drinks brands send out on the road to promote their products in the on-trade have a valid role to play in the promotion of sensible consumption.

He says: "The best people to engage with our consumers on responsible drinking is us because we're already in touch with them - not through some government TV campaign, but the promotion people we already have out there who we are starting to give training in responsible drinking initiatives to. They will be able to say to people out there 'yes, go out and have a good time, but you look like an idiot. Can't you take your drink?' Speak their language.

"We ask our consumers and they think the government's superhero adverts are just quite amusing."