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In the home of Absolut

Published:Sunday | November 14, 2010 | 12:00 AM
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From left: Robyn Abel, general manager and J. Wray & Nephew's advertising company partner in Paris; Andrew Desnoes, chief operations officer of J. Wray & Nephew; and Gina Lagos of Vision Critical, Pernod Ricard partner, United Kingdom.
Chesna Haber, brand associate for Absolut Vodka, at Stockholm's Icebar. She was in temperatures below 9 Celsius!- Contributed photos
Andrew Desnoes of J. Wray & Nephew is caught in an icy mix at the Icebar in Stockholm, Sweden. - Contributed
It's dinner time with the entire group in the laundry room at the Count's Castle.
Two major chefs in Matt Gentile (left) of Berlin's Absolut Vodka advertising partner and Tommaso Taje from Italy check their cellphones.
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Andrew Desnoes, J. Wray & Nephew's chief operations officer, and Chesna Haber, the company's brand associate, visited Stockholm, Sweden, as part of a group of 25 of the brand's other partners from around the world to learn more about what makes Absolut Vodka one of the world's best brands.

The trip began on October 26 when they arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. They stayed at the Hilton Airport Hotel. On October 27, they departed via train in 7 Celsius weather for Ahus, home of Absolut Vodka. The real journey began at the Absolut Akademi where they learnt that in less than 30 years, Absolut had grown from a mere idea to become the world's fourth best-selling spirit.

Absolut Vodka owes its extraordinary success in part to marketing, but no brand accomplishes this level of success on just image alone - it has to be a top-quality product.

The secret can be summed up in two words: 'One Source'. Every single drop of the vodka that is sold every year comes from only one place: Ahus, located in southern Sweden. It is there where winter wheat and deep well water can be found. This is the same place where more than 500 years of vodka-making tradition and the latest in continuous distillation technology come together.










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