1. Introduction
1.1 About ABSOLUT VODKA
Since March 2008 ABSOLUT VODKA belongs to the portfolio of the French company Pernod Ricard, the world's second biggest producer of alcoholic beverages. The acquisition of ABSOLUT was kind of importance for the company as it already held important positions on the whisky and gin segments, but did not have a strong vodka brand. Now with ABSOLUT Pernod Ricard held and successfully brand which belongs to the premium segment of the Vodka market.
ABSOLUT VODKA which is originally from Sweden, is still produced according a special procedure introduced in the nineteenth century by "The Vodka King", Lars Olsson Smith. In fact, the medallion on every bottle of today’s ABSOLUT VODKA bears his portrait. The unique process is called continuous distillation: ABSOLUT VODKA is distilled hundreds of times until all impurities have been removed. Even the bottles for ABSOLUT VODKA, which was inspired by an 18th-century Swedish medicine bottle, are still manufactured in Sweden. From Åhus in southern Sweden the vodka shipped to countries all over the world.
The Vodka was introduced into the Unites States in 1979. Today it’s the fourth largest international premium spirit in the world. It has become the top-selling premium spirits brand in the United States and the worlds leading brand of premium vodka which is available in 126 markets.
Since the launch in 1979 ABSOLUT has reached worldwide outstanding sales growth. 2007 was an excellent year for ABSOLUT Vodka. Sales increased by 9% to 96,6 millions of litres. Some 500,000 bottles of ABSOLUT VODKA are produced every day.
The biggest selling market is the USA (45,2 millions of litre) followed from Canada (3,4 millions of litres) Spain (3,1 millions of litres) United ...