We’ve launched Distilled 2025 - our annual Consumer Trends Report.
Overview
Our success is built on a rich Latin American heritage, and the reach of our brands. Our Scotch brands have been available in Latin America for many decades, and well-loved names such as Johnnie Walker, Old Parr and Buchanan’s account for two thirds of our business in the region.
Our business is sustained through innovation and we are constantly looking to create new experiences for our customers through local brands such as Ypioca cachaça in Brazil. We’ve also worked to broaden our portfolio beyond scotch, innovating with culturally relevant local variants of brands like Smirnoff.
As well as expanding into new categories, we want to widen our price points, too. By enhancing our supply structure, we'll be able to create brands and products that appeal to the emerging middle class as well as the increasing number of affluent customers who seek out nothing less than premium. This, together with our unwavering stance on responsible drinking and community development programmes, will shape our presence within Latin America and the Caribbean for many years to come.
+4,300
employees
18 %
reported growth in net sales
11 %
reported growth in net sales in Spirits
Our brands
Our range of local and international spirit brands span all categories and price points, with our diverse Scotch portfolio leading the way. We want to continue to lead with scotch, while broadening our category range through tequila, gin, rum, vodka, liqueurs and local spirits.
- Grand Old Parr: Colombia's no. 1 whisky
- Cacique: Venezuela's no. 1 rum
- Zacapa: Crafted in Guatemala
- Ypioca: Traditional Brazilian cahaça
Local stars
We have local brands in market from tequila and cachaça to rum that enable us to diversify across categories and price points, according to local preferences.
Our locations and markets
Our Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) business comprises five markets: Brazil, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean (CCA), Colombia and Venezuela (Andean), and South LAC (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay).
ESG
Spirit of Progress
Spirit of Progress is our ten-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. We want people to enjoy alcohol as part of a balanced lifestyle, and we invest in programmes that help change behaviour and reduce harm. We are proud of our work across the region to support and empower sustainable communities and to reduce our environmental impact.
Performance
37%
percentage of female employees
32%
reduced our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emission
984,213
young people trained through our SMASHED programme
Grain-to-glass Sustainability
In Brazil, 47% of all our energy use is derived from renewable sources. Our new facility in Ceará State, Brazil, brings together production from two existing sites, and will use solar energy to further increase our use of renewable energy and will use water treatment and reuse facilities to reduce water consumption in beverage production by up to 40%.
The Diageo Institute
As part of the Tecendo o Futuro (Weaving the Future) programme promoting the employment and re-socialisation of inmates at the Auri Moura Costa Female Criminal Institute in Brazil, we supported an initiative where women prisoners manufactured protective masks for use in the prison system.
SMASHED
Our educational programme is educating over 984,000 people across the region on the dangers of underage drinking. Learn more about SMASHED.
DRINKiQ
In 2021 we launched the new version of DRINKiQ in Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico. Learn more about DRINKiQ.
We reached more than 176 million people with campaigns promoting moderation in F23. They included ‘Derribando Mitos’, a campaign created in fiscal 21 for Peru and expanded this year to the Caribbean and Central America market. It aims to challenge myths about alcohol consumption. In fiscal 23, 'Derribando Mitos' reached more than 51 million people
Raising The Bar and #barresponsável
Over 1,000 outlets registered in our programme supporting people in the hospitality industries in Mexico and Brazil in the face of the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Learning for Life
Our skills moved some elements online in response to the pandemic, and reached over 2,500 people in the region, including 129 in the Dominican Republic. More than 70% of the participants were women. Learn more about our Learning for Life programme.
Tackling the illicit trade in alcohol
The illicit trade in alcohol is a major public health issue across Latin America. In the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia illicit alcohol accounts for more than 25% of the total alcohol market. Illicit alcohol can have significant health costs, including death, as well as decreasing tax revenues and reducing the ability of the legitimate alcohol sector to grow, invest and employ in local markets. We are working with governments in the region to build awareness of the dangers of illicit consumption and encouraging authorities to adopt international best practice that builds balanced tax and regulatory environments. In Colombia we have worked with the government to implement an anti‑contraband law. Since the law was introduced in 2015, contraband levels have reduced significantly – from 70% to 50%.
We will continue to work in this way to protect consumers and economies across Latin America.
Investment and Growth
We are an important employer and manufacturer in Latin America, investing heavily in our people, our brands, facilities and communities to ensure we play a positive role in the development of economies in the region. We employ more than 4,300 people in the region and have local production in Venezuela, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Brazil.
Spirits net sales grew 11% in F23. This was primarily led by double-digit growth in scotch, particularly Johnnie Walker Black Label, Johnnie Walker Red Label and Old Parr. Growth was also driven by strong double digit growth in Don Julio and Smirnoff.
The Moment is Now campaign created double digit growth of Johnnie Walker, Buchanan’s and Old Parr, driven by strong scotch performance in Colombia.
Since we acquired Ypioca cachaça in Brazil, we have invested over $500 million in the cachaça business, including the modernisation of facilities, growing skills and employment in the Ceará region and supporting environmental and social initiatives.
Supply operations
Many of the brands sold in the region are manufactured by our International Supply Centre in Europe. However, we also own many local manufacturing facilities. In Mexico, we produce tequila. In Brazil, we produce cachaça and vodka. In Guatemala, we produce Zacapa rum. Throughout the region, we work with local co-packers, bottlers and licensed brewers.
Route to consumer
We tailor the model we use to the market we're in. In Mexico and Brazil, we sell to a wide network of retailers, wholesalers and resellers, making our products available to shoppers in both on- and off-premise outlets. In most of Central America and the Caribbean, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, we partner with geographically exclusive distributors to sell and market our products. In Colombia, Peru and Chile, we use a hybrid model: we sell directly to some key accounts, while distributors focus on making our products physically available to customers.
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