Move Over Bailey’s, Here Comes the Swan

According to Impact Databank, Bailey’s Irish Cream is a 1.5 million 9-litre brand in the US and grew 6.5% from 2018 to 2019. But after you read the story about Coole Swan Irish Cream Liqueur, you might wonder if Coole Swan, with the right resources, might just make a dent in those numbers.

The Back Story

David Gluckman, whom I’ve written about in the past, spent 45 years in the drinks business primarily in the new brand development area. Much of his career, 36 years to be exact, was with International Distillers and Vintners (IDV), the company that became Diageo. Along the way, he created Sheridan’s, Le Piat d’Or, Tanqueray Ten, Bailey’s Irish Cream, among others.

In 2005, he left Diageo and decided that, together with some former clients/colleagues, they would develop products for their own company. As he puts it in his book (That S*it Will Never Sell):

“When I think back, I was isolated from most of the tough stuff… working for a company. All I had to do was come up with ideas. Other people looked at production, finance and marketing. Now that I was working on a brand of my own, I came to realise how difficult things could be at the deep end.”

Among the products they developed was Coole Swan where they saw an opportunity for a product with lower sweetness and more modern, sophisticated packaging which broke with the Bailey’s template.

Currently, the brand is an independently owned family business run by husband and wife team Mary Sadlier and Philip Brady. Interestingly, Mary Sadlier’s background was in corporate finance at Diageo.

I’ll come back to her in a moment, but about now you’re probably wondering where the brand’s name comes from.

Coole Swan

As Mary put it, “the name Coole Swan was inspired by The Wild Swans at Coole, a poem written by one of Ireland’s great romantic poets; W.B. Yeats. In this poem Yeats writes about finding everlasting beauty in an ever-changing world – just like our wonderful Irish Cream Liqueur. Coole Swan, an eternal beauty, we just bottled it.”

According to David Gluckman, he and his associates had a hard time coming up with a name for the cream liqueur they invented. Either the name didn’t fit or was already taken. By chance, David was catching the last plane out of Dublin and looking for inspiration, picked up a copy of a book of Yeats’ poetry. He found one of his most famous poems, as he put it, “a wistful reflection on the passing of time called The Wild Swans at Coole,” a park near County Galaway.

(A link to the poem is here.)

About Mary Sadlier, the owner

Mary Sadlier, who with her husband Philip Brady, run the Coole Swan business, hails from Navan in County Meath. The Coole Swan company is based nearby in Tatestown near Navath in the same county.

Mary is an amazing businessperson and struck me as someone who is always learning, always growing.

As mentioned, she was in corporate finance at Diageo. In my view, after talking with her at length for this article, it was clear to me that she has a keen overall sense of all aspects of business, marketing and sales included. She has participated in Going for Growth a six-month part-time program, supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, which assists ambitious female entrepreneurs to achieve their growth aspirations.

I found this quote from her on their newsletter:

“The Going for Growth program was of tremendous benefit to me. To be among so many brilliant women made me grow in confidence and allowed me to ‘lean-in’. The fellow participants are like really good neighbors – they are there with you when need them but not when you don’t,” says Mary.

What Mary and her company lack is the corporate resources to meet the challenge of Bailey’s and the dozens of Bailey’s knock-offs and wannabes.

About the product

The best way to describe the product is to compare it to Bailey’s:

Coole Swan is made with Single Malt Irish whiskey, Belgian white chocolate and fresh cream. It is only produced in Ireland. Bailey’s is made with Irish Whiskey and a propriety recipe of chocolate flavors. The company reports that it is made in both Dublin, Ireland and in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. But given its volume and widespread global distribution, I suspect it may be produced elsewhere as well.

The alcohol by volume is similar for both, around 16/17% AbV. The price points vary with Coole Swan selling for (roughly in the US) $29.99 and Baily’s at $25.

So long as we’re talking comparisons, I found this review from Common Man Cocktails:

“BAILEYS’ has a really deep nutty/chocolatey nose hitting your nostrils with a fairly potent ethanol all along whereas COOLE SWAN is far more tamed (with an actual cream thickness when swirled around the glass) with a lot more components coming through at once, not standing out or taking over one another but all having their say and coming out nicely…”

The Future for Coole Swan

The brand does around 10,000 9-litre cases in the US and currently is in New York Metro, Colorado, New Hampshire, Kansas, South Carolina and Massachusetts. Mary is smart enough to know the US market and is looking at LibDib (and other approaches) to expand into Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, California, as well as Maine Vermont and New Jersey.

Globally, the brand is in Ireland (of course) and elsewhere in the UK, Germany, Australia, and Alberta Canada.

My takeaway

From a personal perspective, my wife and I have always been Bailey’s Irish Cream lovers, considering it as a special treat, upon occasion. However — and at the risk of offending my Diageo friends — Coole Swan is at an entirely different level of cream liqueurs. It is, as the label indicates, a “Superior Irish Cream Liqueur.”

I’m well aware of the trend toward low and no alcohol and one might wonder as to whether the drinking climate will inhibit the growth of all cream liqueurs. However, the sales data shows that the leading brands, have grown one percent recently — basically flat but not declining. With all due respects to the trend followers, not everyone buys into it (what’s the point of drinking a no-alcohol tequila) and, regardless, a bit of indulgence goes a long way these days.

The challenge Coole Swan faces is resources, and, to make the brand grow by expanding in current markets, adding meaningful and strategically important new markets, building awareness and trial, and the human resources to make all this happen.

What Mary and her team have going for them, and why I believe in the growth potential of the brand, is tenacity, passion, intelligence, and strategic thinking. They need that and more to make a dent in the category and Bailey’s sales.

I love a good David vs. Goliath story. Don’t you?

I was chatting with James Espey the other day and the subject of Baileys Irish Cream came up. For those of you who don’t know him or of him, suffice to say that James is a legend in the spirits industry as a very senior manager that has successfully run companies, categories and brands. In addition to creating the Keepers of the Quaich (see Sept. 28, 2010 posting) James’ innovation history includes the invention of Malibu, significant involvement in Baileys and much more.

He is still at it with a range of new and unique ventures including Last Drop Distillers among other ventures.

Anyway, the subject turned to what it takes for a brand to withstand the naysayers (generally corporate types who are risk adverse and would rather buy than create) and the prognosticators (the self proclaimed experts at prediction of success and failure). James told me the story of a well known industry observer who took one look at the Baileys idea and proclaimed, “that s**t will never sell.” Well, the forecast was wrong but never mind, that gent went on to make millions in the industry anyhow.

The Baileys story I had heard came from the late Jerry Mann (former Seagram CEO) right after I took over new products. His advice began with a typical Jerry Mann comment. “Listen pal,” he said between puffs, “in this business, you just never know what will sell and what won’t.”

It seems that when Jerry was running a distributor operation in California a friend called and asked for a favor, which was to buy some 5,000 cases of this new cream liqueur. He thought it was doomed for failure but a friend asked a favor and Jerry complied. As he put it, “we stuck the crap in the back of the warehouse and forgot all about it.” Then one day out of the blue, a sales manager called and informed him that retailers were clamoring for “that crap at the back of the warehouse.”

7 million cases per year later, despite ups and downs, lower priced knock-offs and diet and weight concerns, Baileys is still going strong and a true global brand.

According to James, it was launched using a well thought out new product approach, a strong dedicated team, management commitment and an understanding of consumer needs and wants. Which I believe gave the brand its momentum. Once you get momentum, boys and girls, even a large bureaucratic behemoth can’t slow you down.

Just ask Seagram’s 7 Crown.