The super premium brand originally launched in 2008 and to the UK in 2009, but after £6m investment the company ran into financial difficulties.
Nordic Spirits has now found new investors, overhauled its management team and appointed Arne Olafsson of Ampliato Asset Management as managing director.
Olafsson said: “They [the original management team] had done an excellent job in the development of the product, but they were squeezed from two sides: there was no revenue stream, because they didn’t sell enough, and the investor didn’t pay the money they needed.”
Since the restructuring, £500,000 has been invested in the brand and the new management team has set a volume sales target of 100,000 bottles for this year. In 2010 the brand sold 9,000 bottles.
DQ, which is currently sold in 1 litre bottles, is also available in Sweden, Monaco, Hungary, Czech Republic, Georgia and Lebanon and is predominantly focused on the on-trade.
Following the brand’s recent UK re-launch, Nordic Spirit is in negotiations with an Asian agent to distribute DQ across the continent.
The wheat-distilled 40% abv vodka is priced at £50 per bottle and, according to Olafsson, will compete with Grey Goose and Belvedere vodka in the super premium category.
Olafsson described the brand as "tangibly luxurious, based on the best possible ingredients while utilising state of the art distillation methods".
