Gosling’s “Markets The Spirit Of Bermuda”

Gosling Brothers Ltd. is committed to promoting the spirit of Bermuda in the US – both in terms of its products and in a more general sense — according to a major report at global business magazine ”Fortune’s” website today [Apr.15].

“Fortune” editor-at-large David Whitford visited Bermuda to report on Gosling’s rums, now the island’s largest export products.

Gosling’s — which copyrighted the recipe for the Dark ‘n’ Stormy, made with its flagship Black Rum – has carved out a growing niche market in North America in recent years.

Black Seal is blended and bottled in Bermuda from distillate produced in Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad.

“I came down with Malcolm Gosling Jr. Malcolm, who just turned 50, was born and raised in Bermuda. He looks the part: cleft chin, square jaw, blue blazer, white shirt open at the collar,” said Mr. Whitford.

“Malcolm’s great-great-great-grandfather was Ambrose Gosling, whose brother, James, the oldest son of William Gosling, a London vintner, arrived in Bermuda from England in 1806 aboard the barque ‘Mercury’, carrying 10,000 pounds sterling of wine and spirits. Bermuda was not the ‘Mercury’s’ intended destination. James meant only to stop, but he lingered (I’m not surprised), and eventually Ambrose joined him.”

Business was slow, initially, but Ambrose persisted, and nearly two centuries later his descendants — among them Malcolm; his sister, Nancy Gosling, who’s CEO; and his cousin, Hamilton mayor Charles Gosling — preside over the family business.

The biggest distributors of wine, beer, and spirits on the island as well as one of the biggest retailers, it was Malcolm Gosling who encouraged the firm to make a determined effort to launch the Bermuda rums internationally.

“His ambition: to bust free of the local market and make Black Seal a global brand. Malcolm is not the first Gosling to attempt it — the family has been trying halfheartedly to build an export business since 1980,” reports “Fortune. “He’s just the most committed. ‘If we’re going to do this’, he announced to Charles and Nancy in 2005, ‘we need to put everything into it’.

“Then he informed his wife and their two adolescent children that they were leaving paradise and moving to Massachusetts. Just ‘to get this thing kicked off’ is how he characterised the redeployment. He figured it would take three years.

“Six years later Malcolm admits to a nagging concern about his residency status, but his commitment hasn’t wavered.  (He is employing a classic method) to build market share in the spirits world. Not with advertising but with promotions, sponsorship, and stunts. Malcolm once did a rum tasting for the ladies at the very Brahmin Chilton Club in Boston’s Back Bay. “There are two things Bermuda men are known for’, Malcolm informed them, fingering his fly. Then he dropped his pants. Underneath he had on a pair of pink Bermuda shorts and knee socks. (It’s an old gag. His wife wishes he would stop.)”

“Fortune” reports the promotions — among other strategies, Black Seal became the official rum of the Boston Red Sox in a multi-faceted endorsement deal –  have worked. American exports rose 10 percent in 2010, to around 77,000 cases.

“Still a boutique number, granted. (Bacardi, the category leader, is approaching 10 million cases annually, according to the Beverage Information Group),” said the business magazine. ”But it was enough, says Malcolm, to contribute for the first time ‘in an important way’ to Gosling’s bottom line. Hence his cheery optimism: ‘We have not even cut the melon yet!’

“Cut the melon? Nah, make it a lime. Time we got going on those Dark ‘n’ Stormies.”

#BermudaBusiness #GoslingsBrothersLimited #LiquorAndCocktails

Category: All, Business