Global Travel Retail is a priority channel for Heaven Hill Brands. Since creating a dedicated GTR team in January 2025 led by Salvador Blanco, the spirits company then hired long-time Bacardi travel retail veteran Bill Kerry to grow its business in the region as Americas Director for travel retail.
Kerry tells TMI in an exclusive interview that the creation of a dedicated Global Travel Retail team was an important step in Heaven Hill’s broader strategy to build its brands globally. Since he joined, the company has been developing new business across major Americas travel retail accounts and building a strong pipeline of additional listings.
“The objective was to approach travel retail as a strategic brand-building channel, with the right portfolio, products and strategy behind it. Since joining as Americas Director in April 2025, my focus has been on translating that strategy into execution across the region: developing relationships with key retailers and operators, securing relevant listings, building visibility and ensuring that our proposition genuinely adds value to existing assortments,” he says.
“We are very positive about the progress we have made. We began from a relatively small base, so the first phase has been about establishing the foundations correctly. We are now moving into the next stage, with a growing pipeline of listings, activations and exclusive products. For us, success is not simply being present in travel retail; it is building a sustainable business and making our brands increasingly relevant to travelers and retail partners.”
The United States is Heaven Hill’s largest market, and the company is doing all it can to leverage the domestic strength into regional travel retail success.
“Our strength in the U.S. domestic market gives us an important foundation. Brands such as Elijah Craig, Evan Williams and Tequila Ocho already have strong credentials and consumer recognition, so our opportunity in travel retail is to build on that equity rather than start from zero,” says Kerry.
Heaven Hill is complementing its core portfolio with differentiated formats, exclusive products and stronger storytelling.
“Travelers increasingly expect to see brands they know from the domestic market, but travel retail also needs to give them a reason to purchase in the channel. That means Heaven Hill was not completely new to travel retail before the dedicated division was established. The company was operating with some of the key U.S. travel retail customers with some of the brands in the portfolio, but not in all of their sales channels. What changed in 2025 was the decision to manage GTR as a dedicated, coordinated global business and to introduce a broader range of strategic Heaven Hill brands to the channel (such as Elijah Craig or Tequila Ocho), and with a much more proactive approach to airports & cruise line divisions,” says Kerry.
In Americas travel retail, Heaven Hill’s principal focus is on Elijah Craig and Tequila Ocho, with Evan Williams providing an additional opportunity within American Whiskey at a different price point.
“Elijah Craig is particularly important because it gives us a strong proposition in super-premium American Whiskey. It has genuine Bourbon heritage, established credentials in the U.S. market and gives us an opportunity to differentiate through age statements, which we believe are a very relevant and easily understood quality cue for the travel retail shopper,” says Kerry.
“Tequila Ocho gives us a very different but equally compelling proposition. Its single-estate approach and focus on terroir bring transparency, provenance and discovery to premium Tequila. As consumers become more knowledgeable about Tequila, we believe those credentials will become increasingly important.”
Kerry tells TMI that it is imperative that Heaven Hill differentiates what it is putting on the shelf.
“We do not want simply to put another Bourbon or Tequila on an already crowded shelf. We want to give retailers propositions that add something meaningful to their assortment and give travelers a clear reason to choose our brands,” says Kerry.
“We have enormous respect for the established players in American Whiskey, and their investment has helped build the category globally. Our strategy is not to try to replicate what they are doing. We compete through authenticity, craftsmanship and differentiation. Heaven Hill wants to become a strategic partner in GTR, with a clear focus in Whiskey and Tequila.”
One of the clearest opportunities for Heaven Hill is age, says Kerry.
“We believe an age statement provides the shopper with a very tangible and transparent indication of what they are buying. It is easy to understand, particularly for international whisky consumers who may be more accustomed to seeing age statements in Scotch and other whisky categories. That is particularly relevant with Elijah Craig. It gives us an opportunity not only to recruit existing Bourbon drinkers but also to speak to premium whisky consumers more broadly.”
The company is also developing channel specific products to bring exclusivity to travel retail: the new Elijah Craig 10 Year Old Small Batch, developed exclusively for Global Travel Retail.
“It takes the award-winning Elijah Craig Small Batch proposition and introduces a clear 10-year age statement. It is bottled at 94 proof and reflects exactly the kind of differentiation we want to bring to the channel: a familiar and trusted brand proposition, but with something genuinely distinctive for the traveler,” says Kerry.
“The launch is particularly important strategically because it reinforces our belief that age statements can become a meaningful point of differentiation for American Whiskey in GTR.
We have also developed travel retail-specific formats for Elijah Craig and Tequila Ocho, and our pipeline includes further exclusive or highly allocated propositions. The intention is to create innovation that is relevant not only to existing American Whiskey consumers, but to premium whisky shoppers more broadly.”
Elijah Craig is the official bourbon of the Ryder Cup, and Heaven Hill activated the brand at JFK Terminal 7 with Duty Free Americas last year, when the event was held in New York.
“It was a good example of the direction we want to take with our activations in the Americas: connecting the brand with a relevant international moment while giving travelers greater visibility, storytelling and an opportunity to engage with Elijah Craig in a premium environment.
“For a relatively new GTR organization, activations like this are especially important. We are not simply trying to secure shelf space; we want to help shoppers discover the brands and understand what differentiates them. Our broader activation strategy therefore focuses on education and discovery, supported by tastings, strong visibility and close collaboration with our retail partners.
“As our footprint grows, you will see more of this approach – combining strategic listings with meaningful activations and exclusive products. That combination is how we believe Heaven Hill can build long-term relevance in Americas Travel Retail,” concludes Kerry.
