Foursquare Rum Distillery now has international recognition.
The Barbadian company, celebrating its 15th anniversary, captured three awards including the coveted Rum Distillery of the Year, at the UK?Rumfest 2011 in London.
Foursquare won three awards at the Golden Rum Barrel Awards with managing director Richard Seale capturing the Rum Distiller of the Year award while the company’s Doorly’s XO took the Imbibe Boutique Rum Award, chosen by visitors as the best tasting rum at the three-day exhibition.
Chairman of Foursquare, prominent businessman Sir David Seale, hailed the success as a huge win for the company and for Barbados.
According to Sir David, Foursquare Distillery was now a world-class operation.
“I am absolutely certain that no other distillery in Barbados has been so named, and I don’t know if any other Caribbean distillery has ever been named Distillery of the Year.
“It is a significant achievement because we are now worldwide known as a very efficient and advanced rum distillery. These awards provide international recognition for our distillery and our brands.
“It demonstrates that we can hold our own on an international stage and stand head and shoulders with those whose natural resources are much greater than our own,” he said.
Sir David said the awards came at a time when the company was continuing to make its mark in Europe and was now into the Russian market.
“What we are doing now is taking our products and placing them in high-end retail stores in the world.
Our products can be found in Russia, Bermuda, the Caymans, United States and Europe. Our brands are growing in stature and we are extremely proud of these awards we have recently received,” Sir David added.
His son, Richard, said the company was reaping the sweets of focussing on quality rather than volume.
“The awards reflect what we have been trying to do for the last ten to 15 years. The thing about the rum industry in Barbados is that for many years, it made the same mistakes as the sugar industry and it counted quantity and not quality, volume and not value.
“We have tried to build a distillery that is a match for any distillery anywhere in the world and try to take rum production to a level that we can compare with anywhere else. What is happening now is that we are getting the recognition,” Richard said.
