Yahoo Finance Behind the brand: Duppy Share Rum, the UK spirit on global rise
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“When you listen to podcasts on success in business, the one thing people won’t say is the main reason they got there was luck,” says George Frost, founder of Duppy Share Rum. “But it’s definitely the biggest percentage of success.”
Frost recalls a moment before Duppy’s launch eight years ago when he went to an event at Selfridges hosted by Ian Burrell, the self-proclaimed ‘global rum ambassador’. Frost sensed an opportunity, barged to the front of the queue ‘like a kid wanting to see Father Christmas’ and explained his Duppy concept, love for rum and business vision.
Oblivious to the person Burrell was next to, Frost soon apologised and realised Burrell was speaking to Selfridges’ spirits buyer, Dawn Davies. Having listened to Frost's quick-fire presentation, she told him to come to the office the next day. At that point, Duppy Share Rum only had a printed label and 20cl of liquid. But Davies is now one of his closest friends in the industry and said later that ‘the guys at Duppys are doing to rum what Hendricks did to gin’.
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“That was our exact objective,” says Frost, adding: "I don’t believe in fate, but I believe in doing everything you can to make the most of each coincidence.”
Following vodka and tequila, rum is a rapid-growth spirit in the UK, underpinned by Frost having secured £2m investment from a shareholder base including British billionaire investor Jim Mellon, the Irish horse racing Magnier family and ex-professional footballer Ian Wright.
Despite being the son of late broadcaster Sir David Frost, the drinks entrepreneur has still had to work hard for his brand to stand out. “The most important thing is to know your space in the market for what you’re trying to grow,” he says. “In rum, that was never an issue. The spirit sells three times the amount gin does globally and there was a dearth of brands in the marketplace.
“Marketing is incredibly important but I see it as shouting. The core bit starts on day one and making sure you have a product that’s different, interesting and high quality.
“If you get that and convince one person about stocking it, a consumer to buy and one person to have it at an event, then you have something to dial up. Marketing in that way becomes the decider on what to spend your money on.”
Frost, who previously worked under the Quintessentially umbrella before being named Rum Ambassador of The Year in 2016, says the UK market is now “enormous”, accounting for 80% of their global sales, the company having sold well over 500,000 bottles last year. Frost, though, prefers to measure it in shots (2.4 million).
Standing out and finding growth in volume is, adds Frost, about finding relevant accounts. Take their tie up with the Turtle Bay chain, which has over 40 Caribbean restaurants and sells 45,000 Duppy bottles a year. Frost admits: “It’s about building relationships and these guys have taken a massive leap of faith in taking us on. It’s not as easy as putting a bottle on the bar. If you can get on the cocktail menu, then that's a massive part of growth. It’s getting volume and the brand and name out there.”
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It’s opportunities abound now for Frost and Duppy, given that the brand’s white rum is now stocked in Wetherspoons and Tesco, which the founder puts down to the ‘Kano effect’.
Six years ago, Frost saw a post the rapper had published on social media with a bottle of Duppys. The next day Frost travelled to Manchester where he was playing a gig, gave him and his team members a selection of rum and left straight away without hanging around.
“If I had stayed, the door would have been shut. We got closer through our love for rum,” Frost recalls. “In lockdown, I said to Kano we should do Duppy White and 10 months later it was national in Tesco.
“If you put yourself in the position to get that luck, that’s the first thing, but then you have to maximise each opportunity.”
Kano is now one of Duppy Share Rum’s 100 or so shareholders, including a veteran board of advisors and management. “Advice for one company will never be the same for another company,” Frost states. “People say to keep your shareholder base really small but so many opportunities have come from our current investors. I owe everything to them.”
Duppy Share Rum’s outlook is building export and marketing its products, to such a degree that the company could then be acquired. “At a time when our growth is quick and needs to go to the next level and proper global distribution,” he adds. “But I don’t want that to happen for five to ten years.”
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The spirit is now the UK’s top-selling premium rum brand, having doubled sales in each of the last three years. The company milestone in terms of volume targets is to hit one million bottles sold within the next two years. That’s a lot of shots in Frost speak but, with fair Caribbean winds, one they are well on the way to breaking.
Behind the name
Just like the Scotch whisky industry which describes whisky evaporating during maturation as the Angel’s Share, in the Caribbean they call it the Duppy Share, using the region’s name for spirits. Duppies are dark Caribbean spirits or ghosts.
Brand launch
Duppy Share launched in the UK with the first expression Duppy Share Aged, in 2015, gaining its first listing in Selfridges. It then went on to win national accounts in Sainsbury’s, Young’s and Everyman cinemas, along with investment from Diageo Distil Ventures in 2016.
Brand growth
It has had a sustained rate of growth at a CAGR of 87% over three years, has a revenue of £6.25 million and is now trading in 18 territories including Australia, France, Germany and Italy. The spirit has been the official rum of Notting Hill Carnival for six years in a row.
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