What is New York-based Castle Brands most excited about today? What are the latest happenings on-premise our industry will be interested in learning more about?
   To get the low-down on the latest happenings with this on-the-move supplier, Nightclub & Bar went to Kelley Spillane, the company’s executive vice president of sales, for his responses to these questions and much more. Be warned; some of the following content may wow you. 

Gleefully Global  
    The proud purveyor of hot club commodities such as Boru Vodka, Knappogue Castle Irish Whisky, Pallini Lemoncello and Gosling’s and Sea Wynde rums, Castle Brands has grown by leaps in bounds in the few years since it evolved from Great Spirits to its current moniker, but the evolution has anything but stopped there. The strategic growth planning set in motion years ago has, to date, come to fruition, and the momentum is industry-impressive.
    So, with a bona fide track record of expansion under its collective belt, what are the latest revenue revelations affecting the company’s business?
    “Castle Brands is most excited about the way our portfolio has evolved over the past two years,” Spillane says. “We have a well-rounded portfolio offering distributors, retailers and consumers a variety of choices in the premium and super-premium segments. The addition of the Pallini line of liqueurs and the Gosling rums from Bermuda, along with the explosive growth of our Irish products, has given us a portfolio in demand year-round.”
    Not only is this supplier’s portfolio now well-rounded in terms of categories, but the geography of Castle Brands’ products itself has become diverse enough to keep a cartographer occupied. Still, perhaps it is the keen logic behind the chosen labels that is the most conveyed.
    “The growth in our liqueurs through extensions and additions has allowed us the opportunity to give the on-premise sector new, modern and updated uses for our brands, showcasing their mixability,” Spillane says. “Combining Boru and its flavors with the Pallini liqueurs, for example, makes for wonderful new proprietary flavored Martinis. A wide array of new and exotic drink ideas can be built right through the offerings in our portfolio.”

A Concentrated Mix
    Making the far-from-myopic move to obtain products and develop recipes that can be cross-marketed and promoted has been a key to this past two years’ success for Castle Brands, indeed. Signature drinks and flavors are at a fever pitch, liqueurs are in high demand, and as such, the company’s banner flies high above the castle.
    “I touched on it previously, but it is flavors, flavors, flavors,” Spillane says. “Adapting multiple brands in our portfolio to come up with proprietary drink ideas to maximize profit for the retailer and satisfaction for the consumer is our on-premise goal. 
    “We have hundreds of recipes on our Web site, which offer unique and exciting ways to enjoy the entire portfolio. And, our recipe data base can be searched by brand, by type of glass, by drink color –– a variety of ways to come up with a perfect drink for a theme.”

The Promotional Punch
    Operators, take note. The time is prime to experiment not only with brands, but the industry conditions are favorable –– if not ideal –– for experimentation. Knowing this and driving the point home, Spillane says the Castle Brands marketing team has set up specific initiatives for proprietors.  
    “To use Goslings as an example, we have a fully integrated print, outdoor and point-of-sale program dedicated to the commitment the Gosling family has shown for seven generations to create the world’s finest rum. The Dark & Stormy, which uses Black Seal and ginger beer, is the national drink of Bermuda and one of the few trademarked drinks in the world. It is this type of unique, proprietary marketing that is stressed throughout our portfolio of quality products.”
    Promotions, of course, are the knockout punch in an on-premise revenue round, though, and here Castle Brands has excelled, as well. When Nightclub & Bar last reported on the company’s happenings, the ingenuity behind the supplier’s creatively executed guerilla and alternative marketing programs was at the surface, such as the example of placing beverage gift baskets in the green rooms of major television shows to generate celebrity interest. These strategies continue today, sure, but as the years have progressed, so has the level of this aspect of the company.
    “Promotions are integral to meeting our goals for our brands. We fully realize in a competitive environment it is up to us to be the brands’ voice as ambassadors,” Spillane says. “To that end, we have built a fully dedicated national sales force to assist our distributors and on-premise customers in finding unique promotions to feature our brands. Over St. Patrick’s Day, we literally had more than 1,000 promotions running nationwide.”
While this statistic is nothing short of phenomenal for a company the size of Castle Brands, really it underlines the philosophy –– as much as the promotion prowess –– that the company maintains. This philosophy is of personnel responsibility and creativity.
    “We have always believed the best salespeople we have are the bar and waitstaff in a local establishment,” Spillane says. “We demand all of our salespeople run seminars explaining the unique properties of our products so as to give the licensee the opportunity to up-sell, which makes everyone’s business healthier.”

For the Public
    The Castle Brands update continues in other, more black-and-white ways, too. There are other recent aspects of business that reflect on the supplier’s fiscal momentum. A media (and industry) moratorium recently was lifted, and behind the curtain are a few revealing indicators for just how far this castle’s legacy has come.
    “Among other things, the capital we raised through our initial public offering will serve to finance sales and marketing activities and the expansion of our growing team of industry professionals,” Spillane says. “In addition, we believe that our recent IPO and listing on the American Stock Exchange allows us to maximize our range of options on how we may structure and finance future organic growth of our brands, as well as acquisitions and transactions with strategic partners.  
    “Through these methods and the continued hard work and dedication of our sales force, we look forward to expanding the reach of our brands and the growth of the Castle Brands portfolio. The fact that the premium and super-premium segments continue to drive growth and profit fits our company’s stated goals. 
    “Our portfolio has been carefully built over the last seven years to capitalize on emerging premium trends,” Spillane says, “and I think we are achieving that. Consumers are more discerning than ever, and our higher-end offerings fulfill that demand.” NCB