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In 2019, UK consumers bought 35 million bottles of rum, contributing £1 billion to the sector’s annual revenue.
The Juggling King Rum Company, one of the UK’s first seed-to-bottle production companies based in Guernsey, intends to capitalise on the beverage’s global and growing popularity. It’s crowdfunding campaign, which has now successfully raised over £390,000 from more than 500 investors, will help the startup accomplish this by growing its production capabilities by a factor of ten.
With the campaign coming to a close in the next few days, we sat down with founder Jack Gervaise-Brazier to discuss what’s next for the brand.
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What is The Juggling King Rum Company’s vision?
Our vision is to break boundaries, and that starts with our ability to make ‘seed to bottle rum’. We’re one of the only brands in the UK that can do this, with proven ability to grow cane in Guernsey. We worked hard to develop cane farming capabilities using different composts and soil mixtures to create optimal growing conditions, and now we’re able to use it to create something the rum market has never seen before.
Our second product is now in development and the opportunities are endless! We’re aiming to embrace the rum revolution and go global with a multinational brand in this vertical.
What inspired you to start the company?
There is a lot of uniqueness and heritage to Guernsey. What inspired me was a belief that we could harness all that history to create a truly international rum business, based on modern approaches. There is a real gap in the market for non-blended, premium rum with powerful branding and heritage, and that’s exactly what we’ve developed – rum with depth of character, and true personality based on fact not fiction.
Who is The Juggling King Rum Company’s target customer and what is the plan to acquire customers at large scale?
This of course will vary depending on the product in question, but the target customer for our first product is 25-55, of any gender, who wants a rum with an ‘edge’. They have an appreciation for craftsmanship and character and they probably have a slightly mischievous nature just like we do. They’re ‘more than a little different’.
What’s been the biggest success for the business so far?
We recently appeared on The James Martin Show, where he endorsed us for having an ‘excellent product’. One thing led to another and we were then signed with Master of Malt, making our products available in over 125 countries!
What listings do you currently have and what are the plans for expansion with trade and retail partners?
We’re currently listed with multiple restaurants, bars and hotels located in the Channel Islands and via Master of Malt online where we can be distributed both nationally and internationally. Next, we’re going to focus geographically in the UK initially and further afield whilst developing out our brand-owned online presence.
What do you anticipate to be the biggest challenge moving forward?
Prior to this fundraise the biggest hurdle was production capacity. We see a lot of promise and potential for growth in this sector, but we need resources to be able to scale and meet demand in international and domestic markets. That’s why a large portion of the proceeds from this round will be dedicated to increasing our production capacity 10-fold. That way, we can shift our focus to distribution growth.
What are you looking forward to most about this Crowdfund?
Watching the proceeds help grow the business and achieve our ambitions!
What was Michael Owen’s first reaction to The Juggling King’s rum?
“Wow!”
What’s the biggest hack you’ve learned in starting a business?
Perseverance.
What’s been a silver lining of lockdown?
Being able to spend more time ensuring our crowdfunding was a success!
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To find out more, and to invest in The Juggling King Rum Company, visit the pitch now.
