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| R. L. Seale |
Here is an interesting and encouraging article I found in Barbados TODAY. It is a great sign that the rum industry may be on its way to regaining its strength in the market place.
Local rum producer R.L. Seale &
Company is reporting a boom in business. Manager for Spirits and On-Premise
Steve Singh is even predicting an equally strong performance next year. “We have been doing very well although the
economy for the past eight years has not been the best. As a company, R.L Seale
and Four Square Rum Distillery, have been performing well throughout last year
and this year given the circumstances of the economy,” Singh told Barbados
TODAY in a recent interview.
While not revealing figures for the year,
Singh highlighted the company’s historic Supreme Champion Award at the
International Spirits Challenge (ISC) in London earlier this year, saying this
helped to boost the sales for the latter part of this year and he could only
look forward to more great achievements next year. “The outlook is that we can only grow more,”
he said. “The winning rum for us this
year has been the Four Square 2005. It was entered in a category where for the
first time in 23 years a rum actually beat gin, whiskies and others. Since we
have achieved that award this year the sales on it have been doing very well.
It is a limited edition but it is outselling the other two limited editions we
have,” he reported. The company also
won the rum producer of the year award three times in a row and recently
captured the rum distillery of the year award.
Singh said R.L Seale would be partnering
with the Hospitality Institute in an effort to give students an opportunity to
learn more about rum and how to better incorporate it into their mixtures. He explained that this was another way to
encourage more visitors to the island to consume the product. “It helps with our exports in the future and
that is foreign exchange for Barbados. That is why we want to educate people on
really, what rum is all about and let them know also it is something that is
growing worldwide,” he added. Singh
wants Barbadians to have a greater appreciation of rum, pointing out that while
many residents still considered rum to be a “poor man’s drink”, the
appreciation for, and consumption of the alcoholic beverage continues to grow
on the international scene.
Just last Friday Prime Minister Mia
Mottley called for the story of rum to be told to the rest of the world and be
used as a way of earning the country more foreign exchange. “There are people in Europe whose
appreciation for rum has grown so much in the last three to five years. We want
to let, not just people living overseas but Barbadians, know that you can drink
good rum here, properly aged rum that will cause you not to pay for some
high-end drink,” Singh said. “We should
really cherish it because it is part of Barbados. This is coming from a
distillery, which is one of two Barbadian-owned distilleries in the island,” he
added.
