Lacassine-based rum distillery Louisiana Spirits has partnered with Stoli Group USA for national distribution of its line of Bayou Rum craft spirits made from Louisiana sugar cane. The local distillery produces the first Louisiana-made rum to enjoy such a large marketing voice, and the partnership will greatly expand the reach of the craft rum's availability outside of its current seven-state range and give instant recognizability to Louisiana’s growing batch of rum makers.
Beginning Jan. 1, the multi-year agreement will push Bayou Rum products nationally with an eye toward future international distribution.
“This gives us a national platform and a path to make our dreams come true — having Bayou Rum be America’s rum, and our rum be available all over the U.S.,” says Bayou Rum partner Trey Litel.
A recent Nielsen Corporation scanner survey of the American craft rum market found Bayou Rum to have a 52 percent market share, making it far and away the most recognizable craft rum in the country, according to Litel. Until recently, Stoli Group USA has operated solely as a distribution and marketing instrument for the Stolichnya line of vodkas. Bayou Rum will be the first additional spirit brought into Stoli Group USA's fold.
Bayou Rum first rolled into production in 2013, and has since grown exponentially in popularity with a line of four rums — Bayou Silver, Bayou Spiced, Bayou Satsuma and Bayou Select Aged Rum. Litel says the idea for the spirit came from recognizing Louisiana as an obvious potential producer and consumer of rum, easily the most popular sugar-distilled spirit, given Louisiana’s history of sugar cane production and prodigious consumption of alcohol.
Traditionally, rums have come from the Caribbean as products of that region’s powerhouse sugar industries. Now Louisiana Spirits operates the largest private rum distillery in the country.