Tuesday, June 19, 2012

White Rum vs Spiced Rum: Who will be Number 1

   There seems to be a trend toward spiced rum going on right now according to Diageo's Russell Jones Captain Morgan global brand manager, who said the consumer is trending away from white rums and moving towards spiced ones.
Jones says that the US is a major market for Captain Morgan , as is being used as a testing ground for some of the new innovative products.    In April, Diageo launched "Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum in the United States, where  Jones says"what happens in the US tends to set the trend".     There are 16 spiced rums that have been added to the market in the past three years here in the United States.   This is going to force the hand of all of the older traditional spiced rums to improve their game or be out of the game.

     One of the new additions to the game was Oakheart from Bacardi, this is one of the better spiced rums to be placed on the market by a mass producer is many years.    The blend of good rum and a spice package that doesn't over power the rum has made it a quick riser and the sales are doing well.  This is also an indication of what the market is doing also.  For a giant like Bacardi to spend a lot of time developing a quality spiced rum really shows that there is an emerging market for the spiced rums.


     It the real world of the rum sales battle, the white rum is still the number one seller and Bacardi is the number one seller of white rum.    In 2011 , worldwide  Bacardi sold nearly 20 million cases of white rum last year compared to Captain Morgan's Spiced sold  nearly 10 million cases.    Russell Jones believes that the "more holistic trend is that the market is going away from white rums to spiced rums".    This is something that we will follow and see if what he feels comes to fruition.    No matter which way it goes, the sales of rum is growing every year, and it is on the back of companies like Diageo and Bacardi that it is growing on.   ;o)