São Paulo Eduardo Ambrosio talks for several minutes about how ice makes all the difference in drinks. Celebrate having found a quality supplier for what most people would only define as frozen water. During get-togethers at the wooden bar at the Brown-Forman office, in Vila Nova Conceição, in São Paulo, he usually takes on the role of bartender.
He seems like the right person at the ideal time. Ambrosio is the vice president for South America, Central America and the Caribbean of the company that manufactures Jack Daniel’s, one of the best-selling whiskey brands in the world, present in 170 countries. The Old No. 7 label is a cultural symbol in the United States.
She holds the position in a priority region for the multinational. It is the third largest Jack Daniel’s market on the planet and the company’s seventh overall. Annual sales in Brazil are 1.4 million nine-liter boxes. The industry always works with this measurement standard.
"The premium whiskey market is expanding and we have grown above the market, gaining share. This is a strategic location for the company", says Ambrosio.
A bottle that costs more than R$100 is called “premium”. It is a category in which Brown-Forman, because of Jack Daniel’s, has 45% of the market share.
The company also manufactures other well-known brands, such as Woodford Reserve (bourbon, a type of whiskey manufactured only in the USA), two brands of tequila (El Jimador and Herradura), two other brands of gin (Gin Mare and Fords Gin) and a French liqueur (Chambord).
“But Jack Daniel’s is our main product, there’s no denying it,” he adds.
The company had $3.9 billion in sales last year. The number was considered stable, but there was growth in emerging markets to offset the drop in the United States: Brazil, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates.
It is still challenging, especially in Latin America, because the whiskey industry cannot follow the same path as other drinks. To please Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012), who consume less and less and want healthier options, beers and wines seek formulas with lower (or no) alcohol content.
To be considered whiskey, the alcohol content must be between 38% and 54%. In other places, such as Scotland and the European Union, the minimum is 40%. Impossible to ride the wave of healthiness.
"When we look at the data in Brazil, in the consumption of the type of product we work with, premium whiskey has grown despite the trend towards more moderate consumption and linked to experience. If alcohol consumption drops, there is a migration to another type of product and the drink becomes something more linked to a special occasion. In the end, the average ticket increases. This requires us to talk more with the consumer to bring something different", says the VP.
The "something different" is flavor. The last launch was Jack Daniel’s Blackberry. It's traditional Old No. 7 mixed with blackberry liqueur. There are other brands with honey and apple, for example. Brazil is the world's third largest market for flavored whiskey, an attempt to increase the range of consumers by making the drink smoother.
"It is a more palatable product for those who are not used to drinking whiskey. There is also a trend towards mixability. Consumers 30 or 40 years ago were more traditional, drinking with ice or neat. Today, especially younger people, they are much more open to mixing whiskey with soda or making cocktails. The flavor fits well in this context", he says.
The headquarters is attentive to this experience. According to Ambrosio, Brazil serves as a laboratory. What works in the country also works in the rest of Latin America. The tendency is to look for young customers in search of something new. And there is also expansion among women.
"This has caught our attention. In recent years, the reach of the product among women has grown. And we have increasingly conquered the market in the Northeast, where we grow by double digits per year", he states, without revealing the number.
Being in command of Brown-Forman's Brazilian operation means having one foot in each canoe. Ambrosio seeks ways to innovate in a company that makes its history and tradition an important part of its marketing.
Employees are taken to see the headquarters in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where Jasper Newton Daniel (Jack Daniel) opened the distillery in 1866. The safe that he kicked, in a moment of anger at not being able to open it, is still there. The wound on his foot developed into gangrene and led to his death. The cemetery where he is buried is also a place of worship.
"He had arrived in the early hours of the morning and wanted to open the safe to pay a supplier. There is a joke in the company that the moral of this story is not to go to work early", jokes Ambrosio.
The cult also applies to the square shape of the bottle, designed in 1897 to prevent it from rolling to the floor and breaking easily.
Despite being listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1933, Brown-Forman is still a family business, controlled by the Browns since 1911. Each employee is entitled to one bottle per month, received with payment.
"I think one thing that new generations are also looking for is authenticity. This is very present in what we work with."
The balance between traditional and new is also transferred to ecommerce which, for Jack Daniel’s, works for emergency situations, at a barbecue when the drink has run out, for example. The executive's finding is that a significant part of consumers want physical and visual contact with the bottle before buying it.
"It's a business in which the innovative and the ancient go hand in hand, in which we seek young consumers, but the master of the distillery occupies the same position as the grandfather and works at the same table", notes the VP.
Contradictions are part of what Jack Daniel’s is. One of the most famous drinks in the world is made in a city of 7,000 inhabitants, where there are serious restrictions on the sale and consumption of whiskey.
