Jamaica leads Campari spirits business growth
Sales for rum and other spirits in the liquor portfolio of Italian Campari Group grew 39 per cent in the Jamaican market over nine months to September 2022, the biggest business boost of all its regional markets for the period.
Sales in Jamaica were driven by the brand, Campari, as well as Appleton Estate, Wray & Nephew Overproof and other rums, according to the group’s latest financial report released Thursday.
Campari Group’s local company J. Wray & Nephew Limited, JWN, however continues to grapple with a shortage of packaging materials for certain products, a hangover from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced supply chain bottlenecks it appears. The shortages led to a dip in the sales of the popular Magnum tonic wine, which fell 3.3 per cent, in what the company described as an “overall decline due to continued procurement constraints”.
Over the-months total sales in Jamaica amounted to EUR104 million from, growing from EUR75 million a year earlier. Growth in the United States and Germany grew 29 and 23 per cent respectively, to make them the other territories with growth nearing the 39 per cent revenue improvement in Jamaica.
Nine months sales in Jamaica account for five per cent of group revenue, which were estimated at EUR2.0 billion for the global producer and distributor of spirits. This was up from EUR1.57 billion a year earlier. Net profit before tax totalled EUR453 million or 33 per cent more than a year earlier.
“The brand continues to benefit from the at-home mixology trend, the success of the consumer-driven Campari spritz, as well as the upward price repositioning,” Campari stated in the September quarter, tacitly acknowledging that higher prices from inflation contributed to the improved financial performance.
During the period, the group said, the Jamaican rum portfolio grew 16.4 per cent overall “mainly thanks to Jamaica, New Zealand and Mexico”.
The Jamaica operation is said to hold one of the largest inventories of aged rums in the world. Its aged rums are sold under the Appleton Estate premium brand. In April, JWN launched a new rum called Ruby, a limited rum blend of five aged and rare Jamaica rums, to celebrate Master Blender Joy Spence’s 40 years of craftsmanship with the distillery. Then in July, the company launched Decades, a product that includes rum from each of Jamaica’s six decades of political independence. Decades retails for $240,000 a bottle.