G. Garvin Brown IV, chairman of Brown-Forman

G. Garvin Brown IV, chairman of Brown-Forman, shares his views on the evolution of the spirits sector – and what it can teach the wine industry – as he becomes 2013 president of the International Wine & Spirit Competition.

Which aspects of the work carried out by the IWSC inspired you to lend your support?

In today’s economy, quality has never been a more critical topic for our industry. The IWSC’s focus on quality – its recognition and celebration of quality brands – is the perfect antidote for so much that is gripping today’s consumer. The IWSC also offers a great breadth of recognition for both wines and spirits; breadth by category and geography, compelling characteristics in our globalising industry.

What do you hope to bring to the role of IWSC President 2013?

If I can help promote the IWSC and enable more brands to get the recognition they deserve, I think that would be a great outcome.

Does the spirit sector have anything to teach the wine trade – and vice versa?

Great spirit brands have been able to carve out uniquely strong places in the hearts of their consumers. From this, they’ve created loyalty and lifelong relationships that are the envy of brand builders worldwide. They’ve also proven themselves to be very resilient in the face of difficult times or threats from other categories. The recent flurry of innovation in the spirits industry, for example, has shown how the brands can carry consumers to new occasions and new categories.

Only resilient and well-built brands are capable of making these advancements. The sparkling wine category has certainly done well at achieving this sort of brand loyalty, and I think we all would hope for the same success in the wine industry. If you really think in arms-length terms, the wine industry has performed a Herculean task over the last decades, lifting entire generations of consumers into more sophisticated consumption habits.

The Anglo-American world’s love of wine is totally unrecognisable today, compared to 50, or even 30, years ago. The wine industry’s passion for its art (and science) is the source of this success. Watching this phenomenon roll out across emerging markets is an inspiration for anyone in our industry.

How have you seen the drinks industry evolve during your career?

In my short career, the greatest phenomenon has surely been the organic growth story for so many long-standing brands. When I first interned at Brown-Forman in the late 1980s, the organic growth of the spirits industry was not making headlines. But today, global brands are growing in every corner of the world.

Certainly for Brown-Forman, those corners are both in emerging and mature markets, showing how successful well-built brands can be. The influx of smaller, successful brand owners in mature markets like the US has also been remarkable in the past decade. They have helped remind us that brands can break through the clutter of noise we hear about consolidation and distribution “muscle.”

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t remark on how healthy the global whisky category is. The category has pulled away from the entire wine and spirits industry in its global reach. As a descendant of one of the early Scottish immigrants who made their way over the Appalachian mountains into Kentucky and Tennessee, bringing their distilling prowess with them, I can’t help but find this compelling.

What are your plans for the future development of Brown-Forman?

In the summer of 2010, we introduced our 10-year strategy, targeting the 150th anniversary of the founding of our company, 2020. The strategy itself is focused on driving sustainable growth, with the potential to double the size of our business over the next decade. The Jack Daniel’s family of brands will remain our most valuable asset, and we will continue to support it as one of the world’s largest premium spirits brands.

We aspire to become a global leader in whiskey. To achieve this, we will strive to grow our other whiskey brands, and consider acquisitions within the whiskey category. We will focus our vodka brands regionally, emphasising Eastern Europe and the United States. We will also work to expand the reach of our Tequila brands to new consumers, emphasising Mexico and the United States, among others.

The US remains our largest market and continuing to grow this market is key. We plan to do this through further participation in flavoured whiskeys, super-premium Bourbon, vodka, and Tequila; continued product and packaging innovation and continued route-to-consumer proficiency. For nearly two decades, our business outside the US has grown more quickly than our business within it. Continuing this trend is important to our overall future growth.

We expect to grow our portfolio in developed markets such as France, Australia, the UK and Germany, and in emerging markets such as Poland, Mexico, and Turkey. We also expect other emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China to become more important.

This interview originally appeared in the drinks business IWSC Report 2012.