THE Jamaican alcohol landscape got news earlier this week that Stone’s Ginger Wine, a product that is very much part of the local culture, has been acquired by a joint venture company called RingTail International. That joint venture involves Jamaica’s Select Brands Limited — a company primarily involved in the distribution of wines and spirits — and Stansfeld Scott Inc of Barbados which distributes similar products in the rest of the Caribbean and Central America. But, how much do you know about Select Brands, its origins and growth through the years? Corporate Profile this week tries to unveil more.

“Select was formed 12 years ago by myself and David McConnell,” Andrew Desnoes, co-managing director of Select Brands Limited, told the Jamaica Observer. The entity, he said, was formed with McConnell after the acquisition of Lascelles deMercado Limited in 2008 by Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate Angostura Limited. Both men worked at J Wray and Nephew Limited, an alcohol producer in Jamaica that was part of the Lascelles deMercado conglomerate prior to the acquisition. J Wray and Nephew has since been acquired by Italy-based Gruppo Campari.

Both men, whose families have a long history in Jamaica’s alcohol market — Andrew hails from the Desnoes family famed for Desnoes & Geddes, Red Stripe beer and other soft drink beverages, while McConnell is the son of Billy McConnell, former managing director of J Wray & Nephew who later headed one of the Caribbean’s leading conglomerates, Lascelles deMercado — left J Wray and Nephew after the acquisition and made the plunge on their own.

“We saw a need almost 12 years ago where not enough focus was being given to imported wines and spirits, and so we set out to start a company that would deliver that focus and we’d already had over 15 years experience in the industry, both here and abroad,” Desnoes added.

“What was happening was that a lot of wines were fighting for the shelves and we saw an opportunity to bring new brands to the market, not just the ones that you can buy in the supermarket, and so we were able to identify some of those brands and through innovation and partnerships, we were able to get those brands to the consumers,” McConnell added in a separate interview.

At the time, both said, the Jamaican wine market was not as sophisticated as it is now. True, Jamaica has a strong alcohol tradition, but it is dominated mostly by rums and beers.

“Wine is not something that is built in our culture, so we needed to really build that,” McConnell pointed out. That building of a wine culture included educating those who purchase and consume the products about their benefits. McConnell said in addition to that, Select Brands is a member of the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust (WSET) as a certified content producer for wine consumers.

At the start of Select Brands in 2011, the company set out to have sales of $1 billion by 2016 and 20 per cent of the wines and spirits market by 2021. McConnell said both targets were achieved ahead of the target and the company is now looking to go after $10 billion of sales by 2028.

“We have grown exponentially and two of the key pillars is that we are the most knowledgable people in the island in the alcohol industry. We have the knowledge and had a great team who came with us with the knowledge, along with great stewardship of our financials, and so we took both of those disciplines and we went for it,” he said.

But the COVID-19 pandemic put a spoke in the growth, like it did for many companies globally. Yet, the men said the company exited the lockdown caused by the onset of the pandemic much stronger.

“I think COVID was definitely one of the hardest things to operate a business through and we were blessed at the time that our tourism industry came up with the Resilient Corridor and opened back,” McConnell said. “The whole world was closed down in March and April (2020) and we were opened back in July and up and running, and that is one of the remarkable things that kept companies like us going, and when we talked to our friendly distributors in other islands they said ‘Look what Jamaica is doing, how do we follow that.'”

He said with the number of hotel rooms being added to the stock in the country, plus the upgrading of others, Select Brands is looking to grow even more exponentially in the years to come. Added to that, the deal to acquire the Stone’s Ginger Wine brand from Australia-based Accolade Wines has the pair excited.

“We want to Jamaicanise that product and continue to build out the market share of the brand,” McConnell said. The initial plan is to go after the Caribbean diaspora around the world with the product, and to include more Jamaican ginger in its production. That acquisition deal is to be completed by next Friday. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Looking back over the last 12 years, both men say they are amazed at what they have achieved.

“We started with zero products and built from nothing. If you look at the Select Brands portfolio now, it is well admired all over the world. We have done so well and added to our portfolio. At the moment we have hundreds of brands,” McConnell said.

Desnoes added that the figure was in the region of more than 300 brands and has evolved beyond wines and spirits to include other beverages and pastries.

Some of the wine brands it represents in Jamaica include Robert Mondavi, Woodbridge, Meiomi and Catena. In spirits, Select distributes Pernod, Mr Boston, Montezuma and Tortuga rums. On the beer side are Stella Artois, Peroni, Samuel Adams and Corona Extra. Local brands such as Stone’s Ginger Wine and Sanatogen are also distributed along with Tortuga rum cakes and a host of other products including non-alcoholic beverages.

Most of the achievement has been put down to hard work.

“When we started, one of the things that we wanted to do was to assemble Jamaica’s best wine and spirits professionals, and we have done that and we continue to do that and develop great talent. We really want to go on to do that offshore, outside of Jamaica, and we are making a bold move with a joint venture with Stansfeld Scott and we have an agreement to purchase and close on Stone’s Ginger Wine which gives us a global footprint brand. For us, there is so much competition activity in Jamaican rum, but equally Jamaican ginger wine is a great opportunity.

“One of the things that we have done, we created a manufacturing facility about three years ago and became the manufacturer for Stone’s Ginger Wine in the Caribbean. and what we have been able to do is to go off and raise the financing so that we can bring back more bottling and manufacturing back to Jamaica. Our goal is to produce the wine for the US market here and really highlight that and make it a Jamaican product,” McConnell pointed out.

But, he said, luck played a role as well.

“In life, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. We were able to find an amazing landlord and location on Spanish Town Road that we were able to grow in. And so, every year or two we would reach out to the landlord for more space and he was able to give us some more space, so we never actually moved, but we have grown down on that complex itself. We believe strongly in relationships and partnerships and through the partnership that we had with our landlord, it really allowed us to grow as best as possible and very efficiently.”

A few years ago, the partners were talking about listing. Is that still in their minds?

“You never say never. It’s honestly something we always talk about and we wonder if and when, but what we have been doing right now is to continue to build the business and create as much value for our stakeholders. So, if that opportunity comes around soon in the future, we are going to take it because the Junior Market is such a great opportunity with incentives that come along with it.

“One of the things that we have always done, both Andrew and myself and the whole team, is that we have applied Junior Market governance to our business so it would be a pretty easy transition to go onto the market. It would almost be seamless because it is one of our mantras that we operate like a listed company on the Junior Market. We are strict with governance like that,” McConnell said.

For Desnoes, the journey so far has been a good one, “a great story and it shows that if you have an idea and you take the time and effort and believe in what you are doing, you can succeed”.