By Al Edwards, Business Co-ordinator
William McConnell, group Managing Director of Lascelles deMercado and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson at yesterday's function at the Terra Nova Hotel. The occasion was to acknowledge Appleton's sales of one million cases of rum per annum. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
APPLETON JAMAICA Rum, the country's leading gold rum, produced by J. Wray and Nephew Ltd, a subsidiary of Lascelles deMercado, is now a major international brand, having achieved worldwide sales of over 1 million cases per annum.
Group Managing Director, Mr. William A. McConnell made this announcement at a press conference held yesterday at the Terra Nova Hotel. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson was the guest speaker at the function.
In his address Mr. McConnell noted that the team was very proud that Appleton Jamaica Rum was the first Jamaican spirit to achieve major international status. "In the spirits industry, sales of one million cases annually in a number of markets is the recognised benchmark that a brand has achieved major international status, and I am very happy and very proud, to announce that Appleton Jamaica Rum is now a major, international brand, having achieved sales of over one million cases per annum."
In addition to being Jamaica's number one gold rum, Appleton Jamaica Rum is also the number one imported rum in Mexico, which is the fourth largest rum market in the world; the number one imported rum and the fastest growing rum brand in Canada; the number one imported rum in Peru and the number one gold rum in New Zealand.
Appleton Jamaica Rum's top five markets (outside of Jamaica) are Mexico, Canada, the USA, the United Kingdom and Peru, and Appleton is one of the very few Caribbean rums that enjoy excellent sales in Caribbean markets outside of its home market.
The Appleton Jamaica Rum range consists of Appleton White Jamaica Rum; Appleton Special Jamaica Rum; Appleton Estate V/X Jamaica Rum; Appleton Estate 250th Anniversary Reserve Jamaica Rum; Appleton Estate Extra Jamaica Rum and Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Jamaica Rum.
Back in 1992, Appleton sold just 275,000 cases a year, however over the last ten years J. Wray and Nephew has spent in excess of J$5.5 billion on the marketing and promotion of Appleton Jamaica Rum.
Mr. McConnell added: "Prior to 1992, we were in the export business for the primary purpose of earning foreign exchange. Although this may sound like a very good position in which to find oneself, however, when taken in the context of the global market, it was not.
"What we were essentially doing was selling quality Jamaican rum as a commodity at prices dictated by the buyers. They would then use this rum to blend into their own rum brand, which they would sell at a premium price. In essence, we were at the mercy of the companies that we supplied rum to and the quality of our earnings was well below its full potential. When the Jamaican Government took the decision to further liberalise the economy by abolishing exchange controls on the 24th of September, 1991, it gave rise to an opportunity for us to change the way that we did business and in doing so to take control of our destiny. Instead of just being driven by the basic need to earn foreign exchange, we began to operate according to our real mission, "To improve the quality of our earnings.
"This meant establishing our brands in several, different markets, but it also meant concentrating the majority of our scarce resources behind the brand that we thought had the greatest potential for success internationally, and that brand most definitely was Appleton Jamaica Rum. So in late 1992, I challenged our export and domestic sales of and marketing teams to attain the goal of one million case sales of Appleton Jamaican Rum in ten years." The Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson said:" This achievement places Appleton Jamaica Rum in an exalted position in what is a competitive international spirits industry. It is an indication that Jamaica can produce a product that is uniquely ours which can match and surpass anything produced by the competition anywhere in the world.
There are some who doubt our capacity for export lead growth in Jamaica - look what Wray & Nephew has done."
Turning his attention to the sugar industry, the Prime Minister added that the sugar protocol and the rum protocol, both of which he negotiated when he was the Minister for Foreign Trade in 1974, have today come under challenge and are likely to end in the near future. He also took the opportunity to announce that the European Union has committed to providing a combination of assistance and grants totalling 70 million euros to be used by Caribbean rum producers.
