Industry: Alcoholic Beverages

The Objective: 

Impression Beverages founder Tamoy Carter, born and raised in the rural hills of Jamaica, wanted to bring authentic rum culture to the UK. To take his business to the next level, he needed to create more awareness of its brand and ready-to-drink cans, Jamaica Rum Vibes, and to grow sales by introducing these to retailers. 

The Solution: 

After working with distilleries in Jamacia to create a unique blend of 100% Jamaican white rum and spending two years to craft a commercial-ready recipe, Carter successfully launched the brand in 2019.

Circana was engaged as a partner to provide the necessary data to track the rate of sales and sales value as Jamacia Rum Vibes launched within retail. This also allowed the client to see how it performed against competitors and helped focus marketing efforts for its products. 

The Results: 

The Jamaica Rum Vibes team was very proud of what it has achieved, from winning multiple international awards, including World’s Best Spirit and Mixer 2023 at the World’s Premix Awards Competition, to winning listings in some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.

The Backstory:

I was born and grew up in the rural hills of Jamaica and migrated to the UK in 2008. I spent over 9 years working in the bus industry in London and had lots of business ideas I hoped to one day explore. The one that stood out most, clearly, was an ready-to-drink rum beverage.

I was inspired by listening to stories of how my grandfather’s rum bar would serve as a social hub where the community would meet, drink rum, listen to music and socialize. However, as I grew older, I realized how important rum was to the island’s culture with more rum bars per square mile than any other country in the world.

I wanted to bring this authentic rum culture to the UK but had no prior experience in the drinks industry. In 2015 I reached out to a number of distilleries in Jamaica and was able to work with a specialist rum agent to source and create a unique blend of 100% Jamaican White rum. 

Once I was happy with the blend, I started researching how to start a cocktail business, bought some recipe measuring kits online and started experimenting in my kitchen with rum, lime juice, cane sugar and sparkling water. This refreshing mix became the main cocktail at home BBQs with friends and family members who were very pleased with the taste. This officially became my first flavour “Original rum and Lime”. 

The following year (2016) I came up with the brand name “Jamaica Rum Vibes” which is a representation of the easy-going spirit of the Jamaica rum culture.  However, due to financial constraints, It took me two years to get a commercial-ready recipe, and I was able to successfully launch the brand in 2019.