Drinks International's annual league of
million-case brands returns. Here is a list of the world's best-selling rum
brands in 2015. Globally, rum isn't the
picture postcard it is perceived to be. In volume terms the category saw a 1%
erosion in 2015, according to Euromonitor International. Probably it was last year that provided the
watershed moment when king of the beach, Bacardi, lost its deckchair to
Diageo's local Indian brand, McDowell's No.1 Celebration.
It was symbolic, but a year on and we can
say with some certainty that the volume leader of rum is the one that looses
the least volumes, not gains the most. This year both brands fell to under 18m
cases. In India, a hugely volatile spirits market, champion rum McDowell's has
kept things relatively stable, losing 3% of its liquid mass in 2015.
White rum is the segment that is facing
headwinds - and this is the very sand from which Bacardi built its castle. The
ex-Cuban brand, which dropped 4% last year, looks like it may never hit the
heights of 20m cases again. It doesn't seem to care. DI spoke to Fabio Di Giammarco, vice
president for Bacardi rum, about how the company is aiming for value, not
volume: "In all major categories the premium and super- premium segments
have developed tremendously recently but for some reason it isn't true for rum.
The global leader in all those categories had something to do with it but the
global leader for rum hasn't done much to premiumize its category - and I'm
looking at ourselves in the past. There
is a huge opportunity."
Indeed, with Bacardi now interested in
building a premium category, not just a brand, rum will no doubt have a more prosperous
future (Euromonitor International forecasts 5% growth by 2020). But in terms of
brand volume, it will likely shed a few pounds to make a few pounds over the
coming years. Tanduay, the Philippine rum currently in third place may end up
taking second spot someday soon - and not necessarily because of its own volume
growth.
Outside the big three, spiced Captain
Morgan has been growing volume just over the 10m case mark. This is thanks in
no small part to its now diversified offering across segments. As they say,
variety is the spice of life.
Dropping down to Havana Club in fifth
place we see a brand struggling to find new areas of growth. With the US market
a step closer (after its longstanding battle with Bacardi over the Havana Club
trademark and the softening of Cuba-US relations), the Pernod Ricard brand can
start to dream of selling in the largest premium rum market, the US.
One notable omission from this list is
Brugal. Edrington failed to provide Drinks International with sales data for the
brand.
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