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"Stoli vodka announces rebrand"

"(CNN) — The maker of Stolichnaya vodka announced a major rebrand
Friday, in direct response to its founder’s “vehement position” against the Putin regime and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The vodka, famously marketed as Russian, will now be sold and marketed
simply as Stoli, the company said in a statement.

Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled
from that nation in 2000 because of his opposition to Putin. The liquor
has long been marketed as Russian vodka, but its production facilities
have been in Latvia since that year. Stoli Group is a unit of
Luxembourg-based SPI Group.

The company also cited its employees’ desire to take action and to
accurately represent the vodka’s Latvian roots.

Earlier this week, Stoli Group announced it would only use Slovakian
sources to make sure that none of its ingredients are sourced from Russia.

Officials in states from Ohio to New Hampshire have called on liquor
stores to remove Russian-made or Russian-branded products from their
shelves — which in most cases, means vodka. Some bar owners have even
dumped out Stoli vodka in protest.

These boycotts and protests are unlikely to have much impact, however. Russian-made vodka accounts for a very small percentage of the roughly
$7 billion in annual vodka sales, according to the Distilled Spirits
Council (DISCUS), a national trade organization that represents spirits
makers.

In the United States, less than 1% of vodka consumed is produced in
Russia. More than half of all vodka consumed domestically is actually
made in the US, according to data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, a
global firm that tracks alcohol sales."

TB

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