SPIRITS: The more the merrier--Rum

Rum is indeed enjoying a buoyant period of growth. Sales grew by almost 7% in the UK off-trade last year, comfortably outperforming the spirits category as a whole.

The performance and prominence of Bacardi – by far the biggest-selling rum worldwide – helped white rums gain plenty of traction, while the dark category was boosted by brands such as Wray & Nephew’s Appleton Estate and Rémy Cointreau’s Mount Gay, which was repositioned this year with the introduction of Mount Gay Eclipse, Mount Gay Eclipse Silver and luxury blend Mount Gay 1703.

There were also healthy performances by spiced rum brands, with the re-emergence of Captain Morgan and the continued growth of Sailor Jerry, despite a fan backlash in the UK over an overhaul of the drink’s flavour profile last January.

This growth follows a sustained period of reinvention and growth for the category in the US. The UK, perhaps influenced by the aspirational lifestyles of television characters the younger generation grew up watching in programmes like Sex & The City, tends to take its lead from the US when it comes to adopting new tastes and trends.

The growth of rum in the off-trade offsets a slight dip in on-trade performance, but that’s not to say that rum is not growing in popularity among mixologists – indeed, the use of rum in cocktails is widely credited with generating brand awareness and popularity among consumers in both the on- and off-trades.

Diane Edwards, general manager at J Wray & Nephew, says: “Bartenders are slowly communicating this rich category through cocktails and concepts such as prohibition-themed bars and tiki drinks. This trend is now starting to reach a mainstream audience.”

Yves Schladenhaufen, marketing director at Havana Club, adds: “The increased scope of global tourism has definitely helped the category. People are more mobile and able to travel to more places than ever before.

“They’ve come over to the Caribbean and to Latin America, where they have discovered a whole new world of rums and cocktails. Cuba, for example, has built a great reputation for tourism and that has definitely helped us as a brand and the Cuban rum category as a whole.

“In western markets, the origin is of great importance and they know that rum produced in Cuba is as good as, if not better than, that produced anywhere else in the world. They are learning these lessons and taking them home with them.”

As a direct result, rum ranges in supermarkets have grown accordingly to accommodate the plethora of styles, with golden rum in particular now receiving plenty more shelf-space.

Six years ago, it was arguable that the golden rum category did not exist at all in the UK, with the category simply split into white and dark sectors. This is clearly no longer the case.