Photo by Susan Gordon
Inside the KRB Lea plant on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew. KRB introduced a new line of rums, Trelawny Jamaica Rums, to the market in November.

Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

KRB Lea Jamaica Rums Limited has set sights on a 33 per cent share of the overproof rum market, and is hoping to gain leverage for its month-old product against established brands like Wray & Nephew by exploiting the cricket crowd due in Jamaica in March for the World Cup contest.

New owners Howard Hamilton and Peter Thomas have invested $15 million in the naming of a line, Trelawny Jamaica Rums, having acquired KRB from Stephen Fung Lee and Michael Shim in 2002 for an undisclosed price.

The company already produces the Lea line of rums.

"Since we took over we added three labels, the Trelawny Gold, Silver and White overproof to the already existing Leas Rum which has been around since 1992," said company director Geoffery Messado.

"The biggest rum in Jamaica is overproof."

Messado estimates the local overproof white rum market at 750,000 cases per annum or 6.75 million litres. The company has set its sales target at 250,000 cases, he said.

"We want to do a niche with the cricket," said Messado referring to Cricket World Cup 2007.

Production capacity

Right now, however, the rum plant's production capacity in a single shift - KRB currently employs six persons - is 1,000 cases per week or 9,000 litres, which translates to 52,000 cases per annum, a fifth of the company's target for market penetration.

The rum is bottled in 750 millilitres and 200ml bottles, but Messado said the factory bottles a greater number of the 750ml bottles which are packaged for the market in cases of 12.

As for the name of the new line: "Jamaica is noted for its aromatic rum produced in its unique pot stills. The most well-known distilleries producing this product are in the parish of Trelawny," he said.

KRB sources raw rum from National Rums of Jamaica Limited, a state-owned company which operates two distilleries at Monymusk in the parish of Clarendon and Long Pond in Trelawny.

Blender Dolbert Lyon, whom KRB inherited from the original owners of the company, said the rum is stored in oak barrels at the facility for two years prior to blending.

The new Trelawny Rums, Messado said, sells for 10-25 per cent less than Wray and Nephew's white overproof rum and Appleton Special and Appleton Genesis brands.

KRB's overproof is on the shelf for $547; Wray & Nephew's white overproof sells for about $730, while the Appleton Special and Appleton Genesis go for $603 and $623, respectively.

KRB has contracted Caribbean Producers Jamaica Limited, the company that nationalised the Red Bull energy drink, as exclusive distributor of Trelawny Rums.

Track record

The rum company is banking on Caribbean Producers' track record in the hotel industry and other areas to boost distribution.

"They are in every parish," said Andrew George McLeish, another KRB director and former owner of the popular Chasers bar in Barbican, St. Andrew.

Messado said that KRB would expand production as demand grows.

"We don't need to double the size immediately," he said. McLeish said hopefully after a year of operations the company would expand.

susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com