The vodka, famously marketed as Russian, will now be offered and marketed merely as Stoli, the corporate stated in a press release.
Stoli Group’s founder, Russian-born billionaire Yuri Shefler, was exiled from that nation in 2000 due to his opposition to Putin. The liquor has lengthy been marketed as Russian vodka, however its manufacturing amenities have been in Latvia since that 12 months. Stoli Group is a unit of Luxembourg-based SPI Group.
The firm additionally cited its workers’ need to take motion and to precisely symbolize the vodka’s Latvian roots.
Earlier this week, Stoli Group introduced it could solely use Slovakian sources to ensure that none of its substances are sourced from Russia.
Officials in states from Ohio to New Hampshire have known as on liquor shops to take away Russian-made or Russian-branded merchandise from their cabinets — which normally, means vodka. Some bar homeowners have even dumped out Stoli vodka in protest. These boycotts and protests are unlikely to have a lot impression, nevertheless. Russian-made vodka accounts for a really small proportion of the roughly $7 billion in annual vodka gross sales, in keeping with the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), a nationwide commerce group that represents spirits makers.
In the United States, lower than 1% of vodka consumed is produced in Russia. More than half of all vodka consumed domestically is definitely made within the US, in keeping with knowledge from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, a world agency that tracks alcohol gross sales.
CNN’s Jordan Valinsky contributed to this story.