Global Drinks Intel catches up with Mount Gay Rum managing director Raphaël Grisoni to talk about the Barbadian rum brand’s strategy in Europe, dealing with rising costs, and the company’s ambitious sustainability targets.
What kind of a year was 2021 in Europe for Mount Gay? Did increased off-trade sales make up for the disruption to the on-trade in many markets?
Following the disruptions of 2020, we had another year of perceived instability in 2021. The on-trade was difficult to predict throughout the year, though performed well when operators were able to trade. However, the off-trade compensated positively for us, especially with a strong in-store retail presence and e-commerce platforms across multiple markets. Throughout Europe, we found that our key markets, including the UK, France and Germany, still met targets across all sales.
Last year saw rising raw materials and transport costs. How much of a challenge has that been for Mount Gay, especially in the run-up to Christmas when many brands were warning of out-of-stock situations?
Like everyone else around the world, everything from raw materials through to transport costs has incurred considerable cost increases and logistic challenges in 2021. For many years we’ve made the commitment to buy materials like glass, cardboard and paper regionally from countries like Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico, and we do our best to avoid purchases in Europe and China, so we are impacted but to a lesser extent. This has been part of our overall mission to reduce our carbon footprint.
We have made commitments with each key market to plan our supply chain logistics with an even keener eye than before to improve accurate forecasting. Nevertheless, it’s been a difficult year and the market has been incredibly erratic. Even if we manage to receive our raw materials, produce on time, ship via containers that are increasingly difficult to secure, we find that delivery to the retailer is where we’re still finding issues. We’re pushing ourselves to continue to review and optimise our logistics further and often taking the necessary risks to overstock to deliver to our clients on time. We remain vigilant in finding a way forward to minimise these disruptions and this is something we’re constantly reviewing.
What signs of premiumisation do you see in the rum category across Europe? Which markets are leading the way, and what is Mount Gay’s strategy to encourage consumers to climb the rum ladder?
Over the last few years, in particular, our focus has been on education, both within the rum category and on our brand. Our mission is to guide people to understand and appreciate the history of rum, our terroir, our heritage and finally our process. We’ve found that both France and Germany are currently leading the way on this, and Greece has been a long time premium market for rum. We’re now starting to see Italy and the UK trading up as well.
Approaching the rum category from two angles at Mount Gay, we’ve refined our core range and focused on educating people about the category using the relaunch of Black Barrel and XO. Two years ago, when Trudiann Branker took over as Master Blender, one of the first things she did was revisit these blends, taking into consideration the age of the rums used and the barrels in which were ageing the rum.
On the other hand, we launched our Master Blender Collection, which is geared towards rum enthusiasts, five years ago. This really showcases the creativity of Trudiann Branker and the expertise that Mount Gay has built up over the last 300 years. To that end, the Master Blender Collection is also our response to the growing demand from rum enthusiasts and the interest of whisky drinkers wanting to explore the rum category. Overall, the role of this collection is to deliver something creative, but sophisticated.
Has Mount Gay entered any new European markets, or are any new markets on your list for 2022?
As the world’s oldest rum distillery, we’re fortunate to have a presence in most European markets. However, our focus it to re-enter markets that may have an old vision of Mount Gay. We updated our range proposition in 2020 with the relaunch of Black Barrel and XO, and a full rebrand across the range. This followed the appointment of Trudiann Branker as Master Blender in 2019 and the launch of our annual Master Blender Collection in 2018. We’re operating well in the UK, France and Germany, and we’re now going to focus on places like Belgium, Italy and the Czech Republic.
What Mount Gay products are you going to launch in the European market this year?
In October 2020, we launched the fourth edition of our Master Blender Collection to the global market. This was the Andean Oak Cask. For this release, Master Blender Trudiann Branker used Andean oak casks, which are not traditionally used to age Mount Gay rums, to create a single batch of rums distilled twice in a traditional copper pot still, aged for 14 years in ex-Bourbon casks and finished for 11 months in virgin, Andean oak casks. The result is a delicate, yet opulent blend with layers of spice, nutmeg, vanilla, ripe pear and toasted coconut on the palate. Dominantly vanilla on the nose, the limited edition rum offers a spiciness on the palate that perfectly complements the fruity notes of the aged pot still rum.
In a few months, we’ll launch this year’s Master Blender Collection and once again, Trudiann has impressed us with an exceptional liquid. While I can’t say too much, she’s tapped into some of our oldest stocks and used a very interesting cask.
What initiatives is Mount Gay making in the increasingly important areas of sustainability and CSR?
Our CSR programme is the most important thing that we do alongside making rum. Our pledges include 100% sustainable agriculture by 2024, 100% renewable energy be 2028 and carbon neutrality by 2030. We’re also committed to improving our water and waste management and continuing mindful social and societal practices.
More specifically, we focus on our agriculture through things like a field-to-food forest where we grow coconuts, bananas, breadfruit and papaya for our team. We also plant trees and vetiver grass throughout the year, and we currently have 20 beehives that help pollinate our crops. Most notably on our agriculture end is our recent certification with Bonsucro. When it comes to our energy, our mission is to run 100% of our buildings with available roof space with solar energy. Our water is another focus, where we’ve committed to using vinasses to help irrigate our soil. We’ve also partnered with 4ocean in the US to help clean our oceans. Our carbon footprint has also been a key pillar for us, and we are currently working on projects to make our glass bottles lighter.
