Following Teremana Tequila’s debut in the UK in June, we sat down with the brand’s head of portfolio, Johnny Dennys, to discuss what goes into making a new market launch successful.
According to The Brand Champions 2024 report published by The Spirits Business in June, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Teremana Tequila grew from 0.9 million nine-litre cases in 2022 to 1.0m in 2023, a 17.7% increase. “In the US, it was the fastest-ever spirit to reach 1m nine-litre cases in any 12-month period,” explained Dennys.
Dennys, who has worked in the drinks industry for 25 years, previously held positions at Brown-Forman and Bacardi, and predominantly worked with whisky and gin brands. At Mast-Jägermeister UK, Teremana is the first Tequila brand to come under his ward. As such, Dennys oversaw its launch in the UK this summer.
“We launched in Tesco first on 10 June, and then we rolled out into the on-trade, and then followed with a full-range listing in Selfridges in September,” he explains. The range currently comprises blanco, reposado and añejo.
The brand chose to initially launch in a nationwide supermarket in a bid to reach as large an audience as possible. “The whole positioning around Teramana – and Dwayne Johnson’s involvement – is he wanted to create a Tequila that was premium and accessible to everyone. So our thinking was, well, if you want to try and reach as many people as you can get to, then probably the best thing to do is go into the biggest retailer with nationwide coverage.
“We’re in just over 550 of their stores nationwide. That’s a great way to get a footprint across the UK.”
Dennys noted the response in the UK has been extremely positive, which he attributed to “a really strong latent demand for Teramana” due to its prior availability and success in the US.
In addition, social media had indicated the launch was likely to be positive. “I think within 10 minutes of announcing the UK launch on Instagram, it had 65,000 likes. It was surprising how instant the reaction was,” he said.
According to data by Nielsen IQ, UK off-trade sales of Tequila and its sister-spirit mezcal grew by 15% to £46.1m (US$58.2m) in the year to August 2024, but remain a fraction of the wider £5.6 billion (US$7.1bn) spirits category.
Furthermore, it is estimated that if Tequila could replicate its US market share in the UK off-trade, the category would be worth more than £550m (US$695m).
Bartender advocacy
However, Teremana’s launch into the UK off-trade was not in isolation. “We needed to make sure that we also had the on-trade covered,” said Dennys, who noted that the Tequila category’s growth can be attributed to the role bartenders have played in advocating for the spirit.
Dennys explained that training and education for bartenders on the Teremana brand “is so important”, as it can mean the difference between a consumer returning to the brand or distancing themselves from it. “Just being out by a little bit of a measure of something in a cocktail can make such a big difference to whether someone wants to buy another one or not. That’s why we’re really investing a lot of our time in educating on the perfect serve – how to best serve it, what the best mixes are – but also giving bartenders a little bit of information about the brand. When a customer is asking what Tequila they would recommend, a bartender always likes to add a bit of information for the good of the consumer.”
Teremana has appointed William Solorzano as its UK brand ambassador, who provides training sessions to the on-trade and the brand’s key accounts. “His feet haven’t touched the ground since we started,” Dennys said. “The activations he runs include a full tasting of all three products.” For example, he said, an upcoming city visit will include a full training session on the product followed by a bar takeover. “And then we’re replicating that around the country.”
However, the predominant focus, Dennys said, is on London’s on-trade, where an estimated 25% of Tequila volume is consumed. “London is definitely a key focus for us,” he said.
Going forward into 2025, Dennys said the plan is to focus on festivals, noting that the brand has exhibited at Barcode Festival, “which is almost like a mix between a trade show and a consumer festival” that caters to “a lot of off-trade brands, buyers, buyers assistants and their families and friends.
“That was our first event, and in only four hours we made 1,700 serves. We ran out of product three times, and ran out of ice four times. It just showed how people were aware of the brand, and the fact that people kept coming back suggests that they like the product.”
The power of The Rock
The brand’s awareness, Dennys said, has been helped significantly by its affiliation with Johnson, who boasts 394m followers on Instagram, and has starred in movies including Jumanji, Baywatch, and the Fast & Furious franchise.
However, prior to the UK launch, Dennys said he was aware of the growing cynicism consumers have with celebrity-owned or -backed spirits brands.
When asked whether consumers purchase Teremana because they like Tequila, or because they are fans of Johnson, Dennys said he thinks it is both. “I think there’s also a bit of interest and a bit of intrigue in terms of: ‘I wonder what it tastes like, because I’ve heard a lot about it’.” However, he said, for the brand to have seen significant growth over the past two years, “it’s obviously a good liquid. I was really pleased with the fact that consumers weren’t as cynical as I thought they were going to be. I thought there would be a lot of ‘oh yeah, it’s just another celebrity brand’ but, actually, there’s been more openness to it.”
In addition, the brand has been shrewd about communicating Johnson’s involvement in the brand.
“There are lots of other celebrity Tequilas and spirits out there, but it’s been quite straightforward to differentiate Johnson’s involvement in Teremana versus some of the others. I’m not going to sit here and criticise other brands, but I will big up the fact that he’s massively focused on family values and a family approach.”
This, Dennys said, is how Johnson ended up partnering with Jägermeister UK, and why he selected to work with a family business in Mexico that shared the same values as him. Furthermore, Johnson took a hands-on approach to creating the Tequila. “When you produce Tequila, there are probably four stages of the production process, from the ingredient through to roasting, distilling, then ageing. When you tweak any one of those four, there are loads of different permutations you can end up with in terms of flavour profile. He tried 113 different methods; roasting it slower, cooler, hotter, longer. Do they use this type of agave versus that type of agave? How big are the stills that they distil the product in? All until he got the end result.”
Going forward, the brand has just finished the production of its second distillery, built in a bid to cater to its growing demand.
“In order to be a distillery,” Dennys explained, “you need a license. We’re NOM 1613, and Teremana is the only brand that is made in that distillery. It’s pure, absolutely 100% focused on delivering the best quality Tequila for Teremana.” This second distillery, he said, has created the capability for another million nine-litre cases, “basically doubling the production capacity”, and will also host a visitor’s centre, due to be finished in March 2025.
He noted, however, that even though the distillery has expanded, the Tequila is still produced in small batches, and is not continuously distilled. “In terms of the expansion, we didn’t just go: right, let’s build bigger and bigger pot stills. We just built an awful lot of exactly the same small clay ovens and small copper pot stills.”
He added: “It’s all run on biomass generators. All of the by-products are put back on the fields they plant before the rainy season, so they don’t have to irrigate the crops.”
The expansion also enables the brand to increase its global reach, with launches in five new markets this year: the UK, UAE (Dubai), Australia, Colombia and Germany. It also launched in global travel retail in March this year.
Next year, Dennys noted, the brand plans to expand into India, Japan, Nigeria, Ireland, Slovakia, and Turkey.
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