ALLOA, Scotland — Clever marketing by scotch distillers has encouraged a growing middle class in China and India to use the prestige and heritage of the drink to reflect their newly affluent status. There is also a renewed appetite for the single-malt whisky from mature markets such as the United States.
Overseas sales of Scotch whisky rose 4 percent to an all-time high of $5 billion in 2006, the latest available figures — equal to 25 percent of Britain’s entire food and drink exports.
Industry experts say that strong growth has continued through 2007 and into 2008, reversing a downturn in the drink’s popularity at the end of the last century, when its reputation as a tipple for the older gent saw it lose ground to white spirits like vodka and gin.
“Suddenly, whisky is cool again,” said Charles Allen, global brand director for Scotch whisky at Diageo, maker of world-leading brands Johnnie Walker and J&B.
As domestic sales of Scotch whisky stagnate, sales in China have jumped from $2 million in 2001 to $1.1 billion in 2006. Sales of Johnnie Walker grew by 14 percent to more than 15 million cases last year, worth a total of $1 billion.
