Russian-made vodka brands face intense backlash, with boycott calls spreading this week to about a dozen US states, including Virginia, Oregon, Iowa and North Carolina.
“This puts Russian vodka brands in a precarious position, as the protracted conflict will not only hurt immediate sales, but could also cause permanent disillusionment against Russian commodities in the long run,” said Carmen Bryan, consumer analyst at GlobalData, in note on Thursday (3).
Large networks such as Publix and Total Wine & More have also joined. In a statement, Publix said it “stands with the people of Ukraine” and that the Russian vodka withdrawal showed its support for them. Publix operates liquor stores only in Florida.
Total Wine & More, the country’s biggest liquor retailer with more than 200 locations in about 30 states, has taken Russian products off its website and store shelves. Searching for “Russian vodka” now directs digital shoppers to Ukrainian vodka and beer.
Russian Standard vodka can handle the scam of these boycotts as its owner Roustam Tariko is a billionaire who also owns Russian Standard Bank. The brand did not return the request for comment from the CNN Business.
But smaller companies that import Russian vodka and have US roots told CNN Business who will feel the pain. For example, one of the brands targeted is Hammer and Sickle, owned by Massachusetts-based Klin Group.
In a statement, the company said it was “saddened by the abominable war” in Ukraine and understood the boycott, but its situation was very different from that of larger companies like Russian Standard. Produced by a Russian family, Klin started importing vodka in 2007.
The company said that “predominantly Massachusetts residents” designed the bottle and developed the marketing and that Klin is a “100% US-owned company”.
“While we understand the boycott of Russian products, we must emphasize that the invasion of Ukraine is the actions of the Russian government,” the company said. “Boycotting our vodka does not harm the Russian government at all, but it does harm a Russian family and six Massachusetts families who dreamed of providing phenomenal Russian vodka at an affordable price.”
A similar sentiment was echoed in the CNN Business by Dave Katz, owner of Zyr Vodka. He said the product is “made by very good people” in Russia who “don’t want war”.
“Every little profit we make stays in the US, paying my sales force, promotional templates, distributors, social media companies, advertisers, designers, POS manufacturers, printers, and more,” Katz said. “We will be the only people affected by the Zyr outage. Russia will never feel this. Putin will certainly not feel that.”
Despite being closely associated with the country, very few US consumers buy vodka that is actually made in Russia.
“There’s not a lot of Russian-made vodka on the US market,” Lisa Hawkins, senior vice president for public affairs at the Distillates Council, told the BBC. CNN Business. “Russian vodka imports to the United States have dropped by nearly 79% since 2011 and accounted for just 1.3% of total vodka imports in 2021.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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