Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
1. Many people credit the creation of Baileys to a single man – David Dand, who is often described as the “godfather of Baileys”. David had the vision of blending cream and whisky together with the ambition of creating a drink that was both suitable for the export market and one which would reflect the heritage and agricultural traditions of Ireland.
2. The first experiments to make Baileys were done in a Kenwood mixer – just like one you would use in a kitchen at home.
3. A father and son duo have been at the centre of the Baileys success story. Steve Wilson led the first team that invented Baileys Original 40 years ago. Nearly 40 years later, his son, Anthony Wilson then went on to be the principal scientist that invented Baileys Chocolat Luxe which launched in 2013.
4. There are 40,000 Cows on 1500 farms dedicated to producing cream for Baileys. Cream arrives at factory 36 hours after leaving farm for optimum freshness. 36 hours from cow to bottle.
5. Baileys has a long shelf life – but that wasn’t the case 40 years ago. When it first launched in 1974, it only lasted a few weeks. Baileys is now fresh in the bottle two years after it is produced because of the production process and the quality of ingredients.
6. Baileys was launched in Australia by accident in the 1970s. Dand met the chief executive of an Australian drinks distributor in Amsterdam at a workshop, persuaded him to take 800 cases to Australia, and three weeks later another order came for 5000 cases. It was a huge hit with the large Irish community, and newspapers even ran advertisements announcing they had Baileys back in their stores.
7. Over 80% of the packaging and ingredients in Baileys are sourced in Ireland. The cocoa beans and vanilla extract that give Baileys its rich chocolaty taste are harvested in West Africa and processed in France.
8. Baileys is sold in 160 countries worldwide. It is the world’s favourite liqueur brand and ranks as the 10th premium spirit brand in the world.
9. Consumers in Great Britain love Baileys at Christmas. An incredible 39 litre bottles of Baileys were sold every minute in November and December last year – that’s 55,632 litre bottles daily. Baileys Chocolat Luxe is now Amazon’s most gifted alcohol brand and was one of the top five most gifted items on Amazon over the week of Christmas last year.
10. A largely female team both internally at Diageo and at BBH London created the new Baileys TV commercial ‘Here’s to us’ which launched on Wednesday 19th November 2014.
Source: Diageo
