I feel that fine spirits is what separates the man from the beast . . . . No one ever saw a dog or a cow taking the time to enjoy a good cognac. – Alexandre Gabriel, the man behind the purchase of West Indies Rum Distillery Ltd.
IN A PAID advertisement in the DAILY NATION of Thursday, April 6, 2017, the buyer of the West Indies Rum Distillery Ltd. said it was only four per cent short of owning all of the company’s stock and would move to forcibly acquire the remaining shares, as allowed under the takeover code.
In early March, the purchaser of Barbados’ second oldest rum distillery, which is located on Brighton Beach just off the Spring Garden Highway, said it had agreed to buy the 92 per cent stake owned by Goddard Enterprises Ltd. and was offering to buy out all of the other shareholders.
With Goddards having just over 2.5 million shares, that left about a quarter of a million in other hands, and in its press statement on Thursday, the purchaser, United Caribbean Rum Ltd., said it had received offers for another 120 000 or so shares, leaving about 100 000, or about four per cent of the total, still in other hands, 67 pairs of hands in fact.
The price paid per share was $10.22 and with total shares of around 2.7 million, the new investors will end up paying around $28 million for the distillery. Of course, Goddards would get the lion’s share, about $25.7 million, while the remaining shareholders would split about
$2.2 million between them after the forced acquisition is completed.
But, you may ask, who is behind this new company which has bought the West Indies Rum Distillery?
Well, for one thing, it’s a French company, like Remy Cointreau, which many years ago bought Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd., the marketing and distribution arm of Barbados’ oldest rum, Mount Gay, and which two years ago, purchased the Mount Gay distillery itself in St Lucy, and
the 330-acre plantation around it, for just under $10 million.
However, while Mount Gay’s ultimate parent, Remy Cointreau had revenue last year of a billion Euros, according to the press statement, the Brighton distillery’s ultimate parent only had revenues last year of 42 million Euros.
The Compagnie de Bonbonnet’s main activity is investment funds and similar financial entities, and its president is Alexandre Gabriel, who is the head of Maison Ferrand and who has been described by one writer as “the inspiration spirits entrepreneur behind Maison Ferrand, that brought first gin production and then rum to cognac”.
Richard Siddle, in an article last June on the website the-buyer.net, said that Gabriel “has been roaming the islands of the Caribbean since the 1990s looking at traditional and artisan ways to make rum that can also have international appeal for what have become his highly respected and award winning Plantation Rum series”.
He continued: “By using his cognac knowledge of ageing in wooden casks he has been able to produce a range of terroir-driven rums true to the land and the cultures they come from be it Barbados, Guyana, Grenada or so on.”
Gabriel recently officially launched his Pineapple Plantation Rum in London.
According to Siddle, over the last 20 years, Gabriel has created his own rum distillery in the heart of Cognac where rum, initially aged in the Caribbean, is brought over to be aged again in cognac casks in the south west of France.
In another article, this one from therumhowlerblog.com, Chris Dykstra explained how Gabrel became the president and owner, of the Cognac Ferrand brand.
Born in France, on a farm in southern Burgundy, Gabriel went to university in Lyon, and then to the United States as an exchange student, before returning to Paris to attend business school.
According to the writer: “More than 20 years ago, Alexandre came upon an ancient and almost defunct Cognac house. Through his passion and his vision, Alexandre Gabriel turned this small Cognac House into a specialised house of artisan spirits before the term was even coined.
He re-built what is known today as Cognac Ferrand, in the heart of the Grande Champagne district of Cognac.”
Finally, if, like me, you don’t know much about wine, here is what I found on Wikipedia on the subject of Cognac: “Cognac is a variety of distilled brandy (alcoholic beverage) named after the town of Cognac in France. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime.”
It goes on: “For a distilled brandy to bear the name cognac, its production methods must meet certain requirements. In particular, it must be made from specified grapes . . . (and) the brandy must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais. Cognac matures in the same way as whiskies and wine when aged in barrels, and most cognacs are aged considerably longer than the minimum legal requirement.”
And after that rather pedestrian definition, maybe we can end on a more lofty note, quoting Gabriel himself. In an email to the Dystra of the above-mentioned Rum Howler blog, he offers his philosophy of spirits:
“To me fine cognac, fine gin, and fine rum are not for the alcohol, they are for the taste experience, for the emotion. I feel that fine spirits is what separates the Man from the beast. It is our humanity. No one ever saw a dog or a cow taking the time to enjoy a good cognac. It is like fine art; it is an emotion that you share with others. When I taste a spirit I like, it gives me goosebumps. This is what I try to create for others. You can’t do this with regular booze. For this you need a great rum, a great cognac, a great cocktail, something that is special. This is our reason of being.”
And that, my friends, is the word from the chief executive officer of the new owner of the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados.
