UK rum business Duppy Share has embarked on a crowdfunding campaign to support its growth plans.
The London-based supplier of Caribbean rum has raised almost £500,000 ($676,705) of a £1m target.
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Jack Orr-Ewing, CEO and co-founder of Duppy Share, said in a statement on LinkedIn: “This crowdfund gives us an opportunity to bring on more Duppy shareholders. We want lots of people to come in to feel part of the journey and spread the word of Duppy.
“Duppy Share is ten years old today and, in that time, we’ve gone from a small London brand to a national brand. We are now the largest independent rum brand in the UK, and the fifth or sixth largest globally.”
The company markets its rum in more than 30 countries and recently launched into the US.
“Very few independent brands get to this scale. We’re doing over 30,000 cases and we might get to 40,000 by the end of this year. If we have a good rest of the year, we should do £3.1m in revenue,” Orr-Ewing said.
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By GlobalData“We feel that if we can replicate our UK success in three other countries, we have built a really valuable, long-standing global brand. This is the time, the inflection point, where new Duppy shareholders should be joining the cap table.”
Orr-Ewing suggested France, the Netherlands, Italy or the US could be markets that approach the size of its business in the UK.
“We have top tier distribution partners in all of these and there is a large premium rum sector to go after – with the right resource in place we will turn them into the next great success story,” he told Just Drinks.
Duppy Share, backed by investors including rapper Stormzy and ex-footballer Ian Wright, claims to have 25% market share of the “premium rum” category in the UK.
The company has a presence in the RTD category, where it says it sells more than two million cans annually. Its RTDs are stocked at UK retailers including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
Last month, another fledgling UK rum business, DropWorks, also announced a crowdfunding push.
The Nottinghamshire-based business, set up in 2023, said: “The world of premium spirits is changing fast and rum is next in line for a shake-up.”
