Emperador dominates Mexico brandy market

MANILA, Philippines — Emperador Inc., the Andrew Tan-led brandy company, has taken control of the brandy market in Mexico.

Based on the latest figures released by AC Nielsen, Emperador’s subsidiary Casa Pedro Domecq, has gobbled up 57 percent of the brandy market share in Mexico, a country with a population of around 120 million people, bigger than the Philippines.

Emperador took over Casa Pedro Domecq in 2017. At present, the company is behind three major brandy brands in Mexico – Presidente, Don Pedro, and Aztec de Oro – which account for 96 percent of Casa Pedro’s brandy sales in this country.

Joan Cortes Vilardell, Casa Pedro director said sales of Presidente Brandy continue to grow.

“During the last 13 months, its sales grew by eight-percent because of the growing demand in this market, which started since Emperador took over the company more than two years ago,” Vilardell said.

Moving forward, the company sees a huge potential to further grow its sales for imported brandy in the Mexican market, particularly for Philippine-made Emperador Brandy.

“There is a growing appetite for imported brandy in this market especially for brandy coming from the Philippines. Initial studies have shown very encouraging response to the taste profile of Emperador Brandy,” Vilardell said.

Emperador will start exporting Emperador Brandy to Mexico and other Latin American countries next year.

At present, Emperador Brandy, which is blended and bottled in the Philippines, is only widely available in North America, particularly in the United States but not yet in the tequila-crazed continent.

The flagship product is also being exported to countries across Asia, Europe, Russia and even Africa.

“We are very excited to launch Emperador Brandy in a continent where tequila is widely known. One of our top priorities in the coming years is to develop the markets in Latin America, which will be huge for Emperador’s international business because of its combined population of around 600 million to date.

“This will be quite easy for us to penetrate because of Casa Pedro Domecq’s strong foothold in Mexico and across Latin America,” said Glenn Manlapaz, chief executive officer of Emperador International.