Diageo is “very focused on getting the
energy back into Captain Morgan” after the rum brand’s half-year sales
declined. In
the group’s results, net sales of Captain Morgan fell by 4% making it the only one of Diageo’s
‘global giants’ to decline during the final six months of 2018. More broadly, rum was Diageo’s only spirits
category to decline in the period, falling by 3%. This was largely attributed
to Captain Morgan’s performance in the US, which decreased 9% and “lost share
in a declining category”.
Speaking
at a Diageo roundtable last week, CEO Ivan Menezes said “rum has been tough for
us”. He said: “The spirits sector is so
dynamic in the US. “Even vodka brands
that are on trend are doing really well. Rum is a more muted category. It’s
been tougher. Captain Morgan, as a result, is not performing well. “We’re very focused on getting the energy back
into Captain Morgan so there’s a lot of work going on that.
This is
not a surprise to me, Rum is only growing in the areas of premium and
ultra-premium expressions. The consumers
in the United States are looking for a better spirit, not something they can
bury in a mixer and barely be able to tastes it. Finding the sales of lower end spirits are
slipping is not a surprise to me. Many
of the makes of the mass “mixing expressions” are working to bring premium ones
to the market in order to produce sales gains.
Consumers
of “brown spirits” are not the ones that generally mix it with colas or other
sugared mixes that bury the flavor of the spirit. Rum drinkers are following in the path of
quality that they are willing to pay extra for that can stand alone with a
little water or ice if anything at all.
