Things are not great in Irish whiskey right now. After ten years of historic growth, and the number of whiskey distilleries here growing from four to almost fifty, the current crunch has come upon us at alarming speed. Headlines about distillery closures, examinerships, receiverships, extended silent seasons and significant layoffs has caused consternation. The question now is – where do brands go from here?
Enter Ben Odgers, a drinks specialist who has provided his 12 steps to rebuilding spirits brands for the new era. Odgers began his career in the drinks industry in 2001 at Majestic Wine Warehouses in the UK, where he progressed to head office and attained multiple professional qualifications in wine and spirits. In 2008, he became a founding member of Le Clos – Finest Wines and Luxury Spirits, an Emirates Airlines Group venture based in Dubai. Over the next 14 years, he played a pivotal role in transforming the business into a multi-award-winning enterprise, generating hundreds of millions in revenue and creating over 100 jobs.In 2022, he launched a new venture: Spirits Sourcery, dedicated to sourcing and supplying the world’s most prestigious wines and spirits.
With more than two decades of experience in the luxury drinks sector, Odgers champions a highly personalised approach, but he also supports producers and retailers by unlocking new markets, optimizing commercial strategies, and enhancing profitability. He recently published his Whisky Brand Owner Playbook: 2025 Edition – 12 Tenets on LinkedIn. It contains a lot of hard truths for whiskey producers – the days of unicorns being chased and flipped at auction are largely gone; gone are the easy sales, the unscrutinised claims about ‘limited editions’. Odgers says this is the time to rebuild both brands and their relationships to consumers.
He highlights how the whisky market is undergoing a fundamental shift meaning legacy brands must adapt or risk obsolescence; and – in good news for Irish whiskey where most distilleries are modern – modern, agile distilleries may have an advantage.
The paper lays out 12 strategic tenets for survival and growth, and lays the new metrics for brand owners. The old order is, as Odgers sees it, gone – success now is not to be measured by how many days a release takes to sell out, but by customer lifetime value. Auction premiums are no longer the goal, instead it’s market price stability; similarly the number of limited releases a brand can put out is to be set aside in favour of a healthy repeat purchase rate. Auction records are now less important than customer satisfaction.
Odgers’s guide will be music to the weary ears of whiskey lovers who, in some cases, have become increasingly disillusioned by the way the market was going – ballots being offered simply for the opportunity to attempt to buy a bottle of what was once an standard off the shelf release; limited editions being hoovered up by investors and high net worth individuals, and a general jacking of prices beyond normal inflationary standards. Odgers says that what producers need to do now is listen to customers – when they do distillery tours, their feedback in person and online, via mailing list surveys, or – if the brand can afford it – via market research.
“I think the most important thing any producer or brand owner can do is listen. Partly the reason the wider whisky market is in a mess is that there was too much too fast. For a long period distilleries had their steadfast supporters both drinkers and collectors which were the lifeblood of the brands. They understood the age statement ranges, buying more entry level ones to drink and older ones as a treat. Once or twice a year there would be a special edition which was relatively affordable and they could stretch to add to their collection.
“Things then very quickly began to escalate. The age statements expanded into territories that the loyalists couldn’t afford and with what seemed like a new special edition every month. The loyalists couldn’t keep up and became disenfranchised. The flipping and assets focused consumer filled the void but with the market correction they can make any money and have moved on.
“If I was a brand owner I would be looking to the core customers from a decade ago and asking them what they want. These people were originally the best advocates for the brand as they were interested before it was about making money or being seduced by the marketing. There seems to be a feeling in some marketing departments that if they are not releasing a super aged statement they are falling behind. The reality is the queue for some of these releases is very short as it doesn’t fit with the customer base and high end collectors are just not interested.”
I asked Ben where there could be opportunities for growth – either by category or geography: “I don’t see much crossover between the Scotch and Irish whisky consumer. I think the easiest tactic would be to try and grow the overlap on the Venn diagram. I don’t think most scotch drinkers know much about Irish and vice versa. This is far easier than trying to move someone into Irish whiskey who usually drinks wine. The industry probably needs to get together and create an education piece on why Scotch and Irish Whisky’s are similar and different. I don’t see any particular market being a saviour. If I was a small distillery owner I would be concentrating on my own domestic market and consolidating my resources. The exception to this would be travel retail however these players are not immune to the market conditions, but if you can get in with a small independent then they can be a great incubator.”
What should Irish distilleries focus on now – RTDs, clear spirits, marketing, rebranding; what are the strengths they should focus on going forward?
“This goes back to the listening point. You have to give the customer what they want in the way they want it. A bit of malaise has crept in partly down to a lack of transparency. This is often driven by marketing. Saying a release is a limited edition but when that is actually 10000 units it is letting the customer down. A rebrand isn’t going help you re-engage with your existing customer base, I think the producers need to get as close to the consumers as possible. Bottles leave the distillery and they don’t know where they end up. I would be building engagement systems so I can communicate directly with my end consumer, creating loyalty and stickiness to the brand. You then have a conduit to make sure what you are offering is aligned with the customers wants and needs.”
Odgers ends his 12 step programme on a positive note – he says that whisky isn’t collapsing, it’s maturing; that adaptation based on authenticity and customer partnership will lead to long-term success; and perhaps most important of all, the joy of fine whisky still thrives, it’s just that the industry must re-align to serve it better.
You can find Ben Odgers’s Spirits Sourcery website here and his guide is available to download from his LinkedIn here.
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