Younger generation get taste for Drambuie

Scottish liqueur Drambuie yesterday toasted a rise in profits after it attracted a new generation of drinkers to the 100-year-old brand, which is based on a recipe enjoyed by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The whisky-based liqueur had previously been seen as old-fashioned but sales have benefited from the growing popularity of cocktails and a boom in demand for Scotch around the world.

This helped underlying profits increase 2 per cent to £2.8m in the year to June 30. Overall volumes were up 1 per cent despite a collapse in demand in economically-ravaged Greece, its third biggest market.

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In the UK, its Charlie’s Drambuie Nail Bar van has been touring music festivals this summer introducing revellers to cocktails and other drinks made with the liqueur.

At Bestival last weekend in the Isle of Wight, the van mixed 15,000 Drambuie-based drinks.

Chief executive Michael Kennedy said: “Drambuie has been one of the classic drinks but there has been a generation out there who have associated it with their parents or even their grandparents.

“We are trying to dust down the appeal to a younger consumer.”

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Sales volumes to the US – its biggest market – rose 4 per cent in the year, where drinkers are increasingly mixing Drambuie in cocktails. The market had until recently been in decline. It was a similar story in countries like Brazil, helping boost volumes sold in Latin America by 18 per cent.

Volumes in the UK were flat, but had been up before the Arctic weather last December disrupted distribution at its key Christmas trading period.