Made with real eggs and dairy products and available for only a limited time, Evan Williams Egg Nog is the number-one selling nog. As the holiday season draws to a close, we focus on how our most successful holiday product was developed and how it has grown to become the largest consumed bourbon-based eggnog in the country.

“Today Evan Williams Egg Nog is in a unique position in the marketplace,” said Susan Wahl, Vice President, American Whiskeys. “This product line has become an important piece of the Evan Williams franchise over time, and its sales exceed many other brands in the whiskey portfolio and the Evan Williams portfolio.”

This is significant, considering sales of Evan Williams Egg Nog come in only one quarter of the year – about a three-month period. From a volume perspective, Evan Williams Egg Nog averages 14% year-over-year growth – also significant for a single product.

An Impulse Buy

Heaven Hill made its first foray into egg nog in 1999 with the acquisition of Christian Brothers Brandy. This brand included not only traditional brandy but several dessert wines as well – along with a brandy egg nog.

Since egg nog is a traditionally American holiday drink, President Max Shapira wanted to explore the idea of also creating a southern egg nog, using Bourbon whiskey as the base of the spirit. Today the product continues to distinguish the Heaven Hill portfolio, as one of the only bourbon-based nogs on the market.

“The holidays are a great opportunity for gaining distributor and retail focus, along with an opportunity for floor merchandising,” said Max. “We knew this wasn’t the kind of product where we wanted to get four bottles on the shelf. Rather, it was an impulse product that could help us get the name of Evan Williams out and was meant from its early days to be merchandised on the floor.

Displayed next to Evan Williams Black, Heaven Hill leaders thought egg nog could enhance the sale of both brands.

The year Heaven Hill launched Evan Williams Egg Nog, the company began with a modest production of 25,000-30,000 cases, recalls Max. At the time, Heaven Hill didn’t have the capacity to bottle the product, so the team partnered with M.S. Walker, a long time customer in Massachusetts, in the first few years of production.

Early on, the chief concern was not to overload a customer with product. We knew that the brand only sold in a short period of time and never wanted a customer to have inventory left at the end of the season.

Heaven Hill’s patience in building the brand slowly paid off. Year after year the product sold through, almost down to the last bottle, with distributors requesting more product to sell. Ramping production was a gradual process in the years that followed.

Planning for the Season

Today, production of Evan Williams Egg Nog is a year-long and company-wide operation. After all, it is the second-largest volume expression of the Evan Williams family of brands.

“We first meet in January to discuss forecasting,” said Assistant Brand Manager Carrie Shain. “It’s a huge collaboration to make this come to fruition, and timing is everything.”

Our team asks for orders early in the year, as the product’s cream base requires an eight-week lead time. First orders for cream go in around the end of March, with the first bottling in May, to have product on store shelves by September.

Forecasting and planning for Evan Williams Egg Nog year after year is a delicate balancing act of understanding commitments, managing supply chains and logistics and scheduling production. Seasonals, like Egg Nog, must power on alongside other day-to-day production processes, including bottling, shipping and storage of our other products.

Multiple teams – from marketing and sales to customer service and production – have an important role to play in getting Evan Williams Egg Nog to market each year.

Holiday Favorite

Today the seasonality of Evan Williams Egg Nog serves two important purposes for branding and sales – it welcomes the holiday season in stores across the country, creating a sense of “specialness” and generating pent up consumer demand. The Heaven Hill sales team also executes the distribution and programs in a very concentrated time period with strong activation in the field.

The product remains an impulse buy for consumers, merchandised on the floor, on an endcap or near check-out, said Julie Cole, Senior Brand Manager. “And the quality vs. value cannot be beat,” she said. “Evan Williams Egg Nog is made with real cream and eggs, which makes for a very creamy mouthfeel with a high level of viscosity. This differentiates it from many nogs on the market.”

Our team has continued the strategy of merchandising Evan Williams Egg Nog in-store, alongside Evan Williams Black and other Evan Williams Bourbons, as a mainstay for holiday celebrations. This year’s in-store promotional displays featured a festive, large-format display, case cards, shelf talkers and a pole topper.

The target audience for Evan Williams Egg Nog is our general Evan Williams consumer.  In addition to our traditional off premise presence, we market the product to consumers digitally, incorporating its promotion with the annual Evan Williams Season of Giving sweepstakes.

“The quality of Evan Williams Egg Nog combined with its very approachable price point make it an easy add-on to a customer’s typical liquor shopping basket,” said Julie.

While our team fields requests from consumers to maintain Evan Williams Egg Nog production throughout the year, we remain disciplined in our approach, said Julie. Evan Williams Egg Nog will remain a seasonal item only.