Soyombo Vodka Enters U.S. Market
23 Jan 2014 --- The APU Company, Mongolia’s first national beverage company since 1924, announces the arrival of Soyombo Vodka, produced, distilled, bottled and enjoyed by millions in its homeland. Soyombo, the number one selling super-premium vodka in Mongolia, can be found currently in five major US markets: California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, upstate New York and Ohio; as well as at online spirits retail site Caskers.com; and in Canada.
This is the brand’s first expansion outside of Mongolia and into the US, Canada, UK, Russia, Korea, Macao and Travel Retail. Soyombo Super Premium Mongolian Vodka retails for a suggested price of $29.99 (40% ABV; 750ml).
In the US, Soyombo is managed by a team of spirits industry veterans led by Arthur Shapiro, Managing Director Americas; Jett Yang in Mongolia as Managing Director Global Exports; and James Espey in the UK, as Senior Advisor UK. Shapiro has hired a staff of Soyombo regional managers and has secured distribution in California (via MHW, Ltd), New Hampshire (Martignetti), New Jersey (Fedway), upstate New York, (Opici) and Ohio (Heidelberg) as well as via Caskers.com, an online craft spirits retailer; and in Alberta, Canada (River Valley Beverage).
Soyombo executives have plans to introduce the brand via a range of brand-building activities that include: advertising, social media, experiential marketing and public relations (pr handled by Savona Communications).
Arthur Shapiro, APU Company Managing Director Americas, says of Soyombo’s introduction, “We are excited and prepared to launch Soyombo in the US. As one of the most popular vodkas in its homeland, we thought it high time to introduce this exquisite hand-made vodka for serious aficionados who appreciate taste. We have put in place a team of professionals in the US to help us build a strong business in our current markets. In 2014 we expect to move into a few more but we plan to build this brand on quality of relationships, not quantity.”
Purev Batsaikhan, APU Company Chairman says, “Over the years, we have crafted our vodkas with the utmost care, highest quality ingredients and state of the art advanced beverage production. The timing is now right for us to bring our vodka portfolio to the wider world with the support of an experienced international team.”
Soyombo Vodka’s Mongolian provenance is unquestionable and quite unique: it is distilled on the site of the last Emperor’s palace, the Bogd Khan’s Winter Palace located in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. It is a little known fact that Mongolians are the true vanguards of vodka distillation. History points to Persians inventing distillation in the 11th century which was spread by the Mongolian ruler Chinnggis Khan in the 13th century to the territories he conquered as he extended the Silk Road.
Soyombo is crafted in small batches and is made with the finest organic wheat from the Selenge Province on the Mongolian Steppes and the purest water that flows from the sacred Bogd Khan Mountains which were formed more than 800,000 years ago. It is distilled six times with the purest Alpha-Grade Spirit which is produced by a distillation process one step higher/longer than the standard process used by most Western distillers. The spirit is then delicately filtered over the course of five days through charcoal, quartz, diamonds and silver – a step that is commonly done over the course of hours by many other vodka distillers. The result? An exquisite vodka with an elegant velvety creaminess that is perfection when sipped chilled and neat or used as the featured spirit in classic or modern cocktails.
Soyombo Vodka is contained in a smoky gray, square bottle designed in-house at APU under close supervision by Mr. Batsaikhan, APU Chairman, and is produced by Stolzle Flaconnage, a British glass maker founded in 1871. The bottle features the beautiful and symbolic Soyombo logo which contains six figures: fire, the sun and the moon, two triangles, two horizontal rectangles, two vertical rectangles and the yin-yang.
