Magazine: The magic of diversity

Sára Palcsó
marketing director
Zwack Unicum

‘The Hungarian rum-market is led by a few established brands’, Sára Palcsó, marketing director of Zwack explained. ‘Consumers know very few brands and are highly loyal to those. A thin layer of society, who already has been to exotic places, tend to buy luxury brands.’

Price-sensitive Hungarian consumers prefer the VFM category, drunk mainly in cocktails with cola and ginger, whereas premium brands are consumed on the rocks.

Towards and beyond premium brands

‘Hungarian consumers only recently started to explore premium rums’, Csaba Mosonyi, marketing director of Pernod Ricard thinks. Rum consumption shows a general decline as a result of a decrease in light rum drinking also impacted by the growing popularity of gin and vodka.

Viktor Molnár
Bacardí-Martini portfolio
brand manager
Dunapro

‘Rum is associated with a Caribbean feeling for many Hungarians’, Viktor Molnár brand manager of the Dunapro Bacardí-Martini portfolio says “which is why in Horeca it sells better when mixed in Mojito or Pina Colada than served neat.’

Also this segment sees a dynamic growth, premiumisation and the western rum-renaissance will also infiltrate here.

Attila Piri
marketing director
Heinemann

‘For us, premiumisation in the category means an increase in the sales of matured dark rums’, Attila Piri, marketing director of Heinemann Testvérek Kft.told. ‘We distribute Mezan limited edition, Seale’s and Doorley’s rums, as well as the Old Pascas range in the standard category. Our Stroh brand is a so-called ‘inländerrum’ and is made from sugar cane molasses.’

Product development, brand management

‘In the super-premium category, we distribute Zacapa 23’, Sára Palcsó said, ‘the harmonious taste of which is mainly due to the traditional Spanish ‘Solera’ maturation. The communication of Captain Morgan focuses on the Spiced and Tiki variants the brand awareness of which we intend to raise by HoReCa, retail and media activations.’

A beloved trend in product development is the creation of spicy variants and special maturations in the case of luxury products.

There are dozens of cocktail mixes for rums – mainly specially flavoured cokes and ginger ales –, and there are some that are expressly mixed for this spirit: e.g. the British Sekforde prepares mixers with lime, mint and cocoa for rums

‘Pernod Ricard distributes Havana Club in Hungary’, Csaba Mosonyi informed, ‘which is a favorite of avid rum fans because it does not taste as sugary as Caribbean rums usually do.’

He reckons that there is still room for innovation in the category.

‘Dunapro’s offer includes Bacardí rums’, said Viktor Molnár. ‘Product development trends include premiumisation and the creation of spicy drinks. And the paper bottle of Bacardí known from the Internet is to replace the plastic bottles mainly sold in Asia – we do not plan to introduce it in Hungary.’//

Rum sales go above 4 billion forints

Guest writer:
Nóra Gubek
consultant on market research
NielsenIQ

According to the NielsenIQ retail index, which audits 9 spirit categories, between June 2020 and May 2021 spirit sales were above HUF 116 billion and from this rum’s share was more than HUF 4 billion. Rum sales grew by 13 percent in value and 7 percent in volume – more than 7,600 hectolitres were sold. Stores bigger than 400m² were responsible for nearly 60 percent of rum sales. Manufacturer brands made up for 78 percent of value sales – their sales grew by double-digit numbers. 0.7-0.99 litre rums were the most popular, realising more than half of value sales. Dark rum types were responsible for 64 percent of value sales. //