Pinnacle was started in 2003 by White Rock Distilleries. It is best known for its 31 flavors, including whipped cream, cotton candy and kiwi strawberry. Pinnacle is distilled in France and shipped to the US where it is flavored and bottled.
Since being launched, Pinnacle has gone from little-known spirit to a nationwide brand. White Rock executives attribute their success to word-of-mouth marketing and the popularity of Pinnacle's whipped cream-flavored vodka.
"In the second half of last year the brand exploded," White Rock Chief Executive Officer Paul Coulombe said. "Orders kept flying in."
Everybody was talking about it. Everyone who tasted it would tell 100 of their (Facebook) friends," Coulombe said.
John Suczynski, White Rock's chief financial officer and chief operations officer, said homemade YouTube videos also spread the word.
"There are people doing commercials for us," he said.
White Rock sold roughly 1.8 million Pinnacle cases by the end of 2011.
By comparison, Diageo, a White Rock competitor, sold 24.3 million cases of the Smirnoff brand in 2010, according to Diageo's annual report.
White Rock is not a liquor distiller. The company buys liquor in bulk from distillers in Europe, Scotland, Mexico, the Virgin Islands and the United States.
The spirits are blended and bottled at White Rock's Lewiston plant.
By 2012 it was the fourth largest imported vodka brand in the US and selling approximately 3 million cases a year. Jim Beam acquired Pinnacle in April of that year for over $600 million.
Source: "The Bottom Line: White Rock Reaches a Pinnacle", Portland Press Herald, March 6, 2011.
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