How artisan mezcal brand Zacal is hoping to storm the UK’s alcohol market
If you’ve been to a London bar recently, chances are you’ve seen a mezcal margarita on the menu. Having already found popularity in the US, the once-small market is rapidly expanding into the UK, helped by a shift towards ‘less but better’ consumption.
Zacal is one of the brands hoping to make the most of this change. Started by four friends and a third-generation Mezcalero, it produces small-batch Mexcal from Michoacán, in Mexico.
“There’s a growing awareness of what goes into your drink,” co-founder Phil Clayton said. “People want less tequila with a plastic sombrero lid. They want the genuine article, from real places, made by real people.”
Zacal is fresh off a Double Gold win at the International Spirits Challenge (ISC); it is now the most awarded and highest-rated new spirits brand in the UK, Clayton said.
“But medals will only take us so far,” he added. “Plenty of beautifully made drinks have died on the vine without a brand that moves people.”
Clayton said that the brand is based on three things: strategic boldness, precise execution and an experimental approach to production.
“Drinkers are looking for stories and brands they believe in… and products they’re proud to share.” McCaig said. “Our long-term vision is to become the world’s leading independent, artisanal Mexican drinks brand”.
This resonates with Gen Z and Millennials, who drive the premiumisation trend; more than half of of 18-34-year-olds go for for premium drinks versus 35 per cent of those over 55, and Morningstar has called premiumisation a “long-term growth driver”.
“People are drinking less,” Clayton said, but they’re “drinking better”.
Higher-margin, premium experiences and goods fit into the wider market trend of Brits – and consumers worldwide – opting to ‘treat themselves’ to fewer, more expensive purchases.
“To win today, a drinks brand needs one of two things: scale to serve the lower end or soul to lead the top end,” Clayton said. “We’re betting on the second.”
‘There’s a sense of camaraderie among indie brands’
It’s not easy to break into the alcohol market, though: Between them, market leaders Diageo and Pernod Ricard account for over a third of spirits sales in the UK, with Diageo taking the lion’s share of that.
Diageo is involved with several mezcal brands – including Mezcal Unión, Sombra Mezcal and Casamigos Mezcal – while Pernod Ricard owns US market leader Del Maguey and is planning to introduce it into the UK.
“It’s tough,” Clayton said. “You’re fighting for shelf space against global drinks giants who can outspend and outmuscle you.”
“Add to that rising costs, economic uncertainty, and fragile agave supply chains, and the pressure’s real.”
Part of Zacal’s premiumisation placing strategy is to head for the “top one per cent” of on-trade venues – Mayfair hotels and East-end speakeasies – plus stocking in online giants like Amazon and Master of Malt.
“Bars want to back the small guys,” Clayton said. “There’s a sense of camaraderie among indie brands… Consumers increasingly want craft over the more corporate, real over more mass-produced.”
An ‘exciting inflection point’ for Mezcal
Mezcal, from which tequila stems, refers to spirits made from the agave plant (tequila refers to a specific type of mezcal that can only be made from Blue Weber agave).
It derives from the Aztec words for “cooked agave” (metl ixcalli), and is traditionally made by small-scale production houses called fábricas or palenques.
While it hasn’t yet enjoyed the popularity of Tequila – Mexico exports over 600m litres of tequila a year but only 10m litres of mezcal – the UK mezcal market is at a “genuinely exciting” inflection point, Clayton said.
“Tequila’s boom has opened the door to the wider agave category, and discerning drinkers are beginning to discover what bartenders have known for years… mezcal, at its best, offers a purity and complexity more akin to fine wine than to mainstream spirits.
“We’re still a long way off the scale of the US market – or even parts of Europe – but the momentum is there… the audience is ready,” Clayton said.