Tag archives: distell

by Herman Manson (@marklives) Amarula, the cream liqueur owned by Stellenbosch based Distell, has in recent years emerged as a global brand name that is achieving ongoing growth in numerous key markets including Brazil and Angola. Few consumers would guess that the brand launched in 1983 as a clear spirit with an alcohol content closing in on the 40% mark.

Distell was looking for indigenous ingredients with which to compete in a market which had just gone crazy for fruit flavoured liqueurs which ranged from strawberry to peaches to litchi. It picked the fruit from the Marula tree. The clear spirit was of middling success.

Six years later the cream liqueur we know today was launched. The lower alcohol content produced a softer taste and opened it to a wider audience. By 1991 it was being exported to the Netherlands and given an international brand focus. Today it’s exported to over a 100 markets.

Drinks International, a magazine devoted exclusively to the global spirits market, this year ranked Amarula as one of its fastest growing global brands at a time when rival Baileys (the biggest selling cream liqueur brand globally) experienced “sluggish growth” as did the number two cream liqueur brand De Kuyper which experienced a decline in its main US market. The Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay triangle makes up its second biggest market for Amarula after South Africa and is followed in turn by Angola.