Diageo is launching a new chocolate Baileys and rolling out Smirnoff Gold across the trade.
Baileys Chocolat Luxe has an abv of 15.7%, a slightly lower alcohol content than the 17% of original Baileys, and uses Madagascan vanilla and 30g of Belgian chocolate per bottle.
The drink, which rolls out nationwide on 26 August following its launch in Harvey Nichols this week, has been created by Anthony Wilson, whose father developed the original Baileys Original Irish Cream.
Diageo is also rolling out Smirnoff Gold - billed as a cinnamon-flavoured liqueur containing real gold flakes - across the trade from 26 August. It has been available exclusively since last month in Tesco.
The new vodka has an rsp of £21.95 for a 70cl bottle, a premium of about £6 over the current price of Smirnoff Red in the mults. The launch will be supported with a £4.5m marketing push to kick off later this month.
While these new variants are targeted at the Christmas market, brand extensions such as Smirnoff Lime and Green apple accounted for 5.2% of Smirnoff’s total £355.1m off-trade sales over the past year [Nielsen 52 w/e 27 April].
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