because we’re both a brewery and a blending facility,” Anand explains. “We’re about to build a distillery. We like to think of ourselves outside the box from mainstream competitors.” The company operates from a 22,000-square-foot facility in Kingston, acquired in 2020, with capacity to produce up to 600,000 cases of beer annually. Currently running at 60% utilization, the operation employs fewer than 100 people, with Anand being the only non-Jamaican staff member. “We like to use local ingredients wherever possible,” Anand explains.“Everything has been sort of crafted with that in mind for Brand Jamaica, keeping it small, keeping it craft, and making something a little different than some of the competition.” The approach includes sourcing ginger locally for their signature ginger beer and developing partnerships with local farmers for coconut-based products destined for global export markets. POST-PANDEMIC REALITIES: FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL The COVID-19 pandemic exposed Jamaica’s tourism dependency while forcing RJ Rums to reimagine its distribution strategy. Before the crisis, Caribbean spirits producers relied heavily on local consumption driven by international visitors, a model that collapsed when travel restrictions eliminated tourist arrivals across the region. “The local market is pretty much solely dependent on tourism. With COVID it showed its ugly head because you lose tourism,” Anand recalls. “Basically, there’s a lot of countries except for the US that weren’t allowed to fly. So, we had to pivot as a small company like everyone else did.” The disruption coincided with broader Caribbean tourism challenges, as the region struggled to maintain visitor numbers that had reached 32.2 million in 2023, representing a 14.3% increase from the previous year. Anand’s response involved strategic geographic diversification. “We realized that you have to look way beyond the Caribbean to get your revenue streams in play to hopefully offset any of these world events,” he says. The company now operates in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, with expansion plans targeting Africa. “We’re trying to go back to the origin of Jamaica. We’re going back to Africa. We’re trying to break into Africa and it’s not easy, but we’re trying to figure out some of those costs and challenges.” BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH EMPLOYMENT Jamaica’s employment market offers RJ Rums distinct advantages that contrast sharply with 31 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 RJ RUMS & SPIRITS
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