Diageo Australia launches Reeftip Drinks Co to lead the rum revolution

Diageo has launched its first brand in Australia for 15 years with the Reeftip Drinks Co, targeting younger drinkers with a taste for rum.

Diageo’s new brand is targeting younger drinkers.

The sweet molasses extracted from Queensland sugarcane that goes into Australia’s famous Bundaberg Rum are set for a spicy reboot.

A new brand, Reeftip Drinks Co, is targeting younger drinkers who have helped make rum one of the fastest-growing spirit categories since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Owned by global drinks giant Diageo, Reeftip marks the first brand Diageo Australia has launched in 15 years.

It has been earmarked for international expansion, with Australia fast developing a global reputation for the best distilled spirit drinks in the world.

Reeftip will be launched in a RTD can mixed with flavours and a full strength spiced rum bottle.

Diageo Australia managing director Angus McPherson believes it will ride the wave of enthusiasm for dark spirits, and especially rum, which has posted high growth rates over the last 18 months, helped by in-home consumption as bars and clubs remain closed.

According to Diageo Australia, the spiced rum category has grown by 16.2 per cent over the past year, capturing market share from wine and beer, and driven partly by enthusiasm for a rum cocktail at the end of the workday as home offices turn back into kitchen or dining room tables.

“We are proud owners of Australia’s most famous local brand, which is the Bundaberg Rum brand, and adding another Australian brand to our portfolio makes complete sense with the success we are seeing with Australians embracing the local spirits industry,” Mr McPherson said.

“I look at what the local spirits industry is doing and I firmly believe it can be a global powerhouse in the future, and we like to think the Reeftip brand can play a role in the success of not only spirits brands in Australia but ideally in the future can be a brand that can go global.”

Diageo Australia managing director Angus McPherson believes Reeftip will ride the wave of enthusiasm for dark spirits.

Reeftip will start life in the same distillery that creates Bundaberg Rum, using the same molasses from sugarcane, but it then goes through a different distilling process to create a spirit that has a very different flavour profile to that of Bundaberg Rum.

It will then be transported to Diageo Australia’s bottling factory in western Sydney. The product is distilled at the tip of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland – hence the brand name.

Ten per cent of profits will be donated to the Coral Nurture Program that helps regenerate coral in the Great Barrier Reef using new technology called a “coral clip”.

With a nod to consumers, especially younger ones, who strongly believe a brand should work towards improving society, Reeftip packaging is 100 per cent recyclable and made from 34 per cent recycled materials.

Mr McPherson believes Reef­tip will bring new consumers into the rum category, with dark and light rum throwing off strong growth rates in the past few years – led by spiced rum – to outpace many other beverage categories.

“Rum is one of the most dynamic categories in the spirits segment because it can play in light and dark, and you don’t get any other spirits that play in both light and dark.

“Rum is super dynamic.

“If you look at the role it is playing in cocktails, rum is such a key ingredient in some of the most successful cocktails out there. This spiced rum will be key to that. Its taste profile is different to Bundaberg Rum – it is a different consumer.”

Mr McPherson said he believed the Australian spirits industry was on the verge of “doing something really exciting globally”.

“We have clear ambitions for Reeftip to be one of the major players in the Australian spirits segment, and if it works here I can’t see why it wouldn‘t work globally,” he said.

Since Covid-19 emerged in 2020 there has been an explosion in the spirits category, particularly spiced rum.

“The on-premise sector being shut is a challenge for everyone, because it is such a great space to build brands, especially for spirits.

“But equally when you look at the on-premise being shut, it all reverted to at-home consumption, and I think whether it’s a rum and coke, or a gin and tonic, or a vodka, lemon and lime, I think when you finish your work day to have a great cocktail has really taken off during Covid with lockdowns. Total alcohol consumption has not grown but the spirits category has grown, so spirits are taking share of both beer and wine at the moment.”