(Bloomberg) -- If you think the thirst for rum is a thing of the past, Jefferies International Ltd. says you may want to think again.
A “rumolution” may be on its way, with the brown liquor from the Caribbean being the next spirit to benefit from the boom in cocktail culture, said Edward Mundy, a Jefferies analyst in London. Aperol maker Davide Campari-Milano SpA would be well positioned, thanks to its planned purchase of three rum brands from the French island of Martinique, he said.
“We see potential for the category to become hot and trendy, and for rum's reputation as a refined spirit to be regained,” Mundy wrote in a note on Monday.
Campari didn't disclose how much it might pay for the parent company of Bellonnie & Bourdillon Successeurs SAS, producers of the Trois Rivières and Maison La Mauny premium rums as well as the local brand Duquesne. The brands had sales of 24.1 million euros last year, Campari said Saturday in announcing it was in talks for the acquisition.
Drink trends are affected by changing tastes, as some popular beverages get out of fashion and are replaced by hotter ones over time. In the U.K., gin fatigue is setting in, Mundy has said. Renewed interest in sipping rum, the drink's sweet taste profile, its affordability and its suitability for mixing in cocktails are all reasons for optimism on the prospects for rum, Mundy wrote.
While there's “no clear consensus on what the next big thing will be” in spirits, a “much-talked about rumolution” needs to be accompanied by investments from companies such as Pernod Ricard SA, the Jefferies analyst said in an earlier report this month. Rum has been one of the slowest-growing liquor categories over the past decade, he said.
Rum is a “premiumizing category currently at the heart of the mixology trend and growing cocktail culture,” Campari said in its statement.
While Campari's latest acquisition is small, the Italian company “has a strong track record of buying dusty unloved assets, reinvesting and revitalizing them,” Mundy wrote. After all, Campari is the company that turned a Northern Italian staple into a global drink of summer: the Aperol spritz.
To contact the reporter on this story: Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at atorsoli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Phil Serafino
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