Is Luca Gargano (& Friends?) Buying The Renegade Rum Distillery?
An update to my recent story concerning the sale of the Renegade Rum Distillery in Grenada. When I first published the story, the buyer —or buyers— weren’t known. However, in the past 36 hours, new data suggest strongly that Luca Gargano, CEO of Italy’s Velier, is the purchaser — or at least one of the purchasers.
The strongest hint comes from a Facebook comment by Raphaël Grisoni on a post sharing the story mentioned above. Grisoni has been the Managing Director AMEI (Africa, Middle East, India) for Rémy Cointreau but is best known in the rum world for his 14-year stint as the Managing Director of Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd. In other words, Grisoni is very well connected. In his comment, Grisoni writes:
It seems that Renegade has been sold to our Italian friend from Genova. It will be in very good hands. Cheers to the future “Caroni” of Grenada.
Previous to Grisoni’s comment, a paywalled article in the Financial Times, Is Investing in Rum A Sober Choice?, focuses on Gargano, who was in Grenada when interviewed for the article. Key excerpts from the article include:
Sweltering from the heat, Gargano is tousle-haired in a rumpled grey T-shirt as he’s midway through a research trip to Grenada.
Gargano himself is looking to get back into production with high-end Caribbean rum, acquiring a distillery he declines to name citing confidentiality agreements, with hopes to use its facilities to produce his own riff on Caroni, a trademark he now owns.
It’s not hard to connect Grisoni’s mention of “future Caroni” with the Financial Times article. Again, this is not confirmed by the distillery’s buyer or seller, but the dots appear to line up well, as you’ll see in what follows.
What Does This Mean — If True?
When stories like this first appear, the initial one-liner understanding is often just part of the story. That may be the case here. One possibility is that the sale will be to La Maison & Velier, aka LM&V. This company is a partnership between Velier S.p.A (Gargano) and France-based La Maison du Whisky. If so, it wouldn’t be the company’s first foray into rum distillation, as the LM&V website notes:
Distillerie de Port-au-Prince is one of the newest rum distilleries in the Caribbean, having opened in 2018 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The project began as a collaboration between the Barbancourt-Linge family and La Maison & Velier. The fruit of this partnership is a new brand of rum, Providence.
In addition to Distillerie de Port-au-Prince, Gargano has also invested in a tiny distillery on Marie Galante known as “Rhum Rhum.” Today, that distillery operates as an adjunct to Distillerie Poisson, aka Père Labat.
Presuming that Velier or LM&V is buying the Renegade distillery, we might ask why they think they can turn a profit where Mark Reynier’s founding team couldn’t. One thought is that they’re presumably paying less than Reynier’s investment group has spent thus far. A fresh start and a streamlined focus might make the difference between profit and loss.
More importantly, LM&V has extensive distribution of top-tier, enthusiast-focused rum brands in key countries worldwide. LM&V’s brand partners include Hampden Estate, Habitation Velier, Clairin Spirit of Haiti, and the Transcontinental Rum Line. Renegade’s story will also resonate with the buyers of those brands. Simply put, LM&V would have an easier time getting Renegade rum (or whatever the distillery’s subsequent output will be called) into the hands of rum geeks around the globe.
Final Thoughts
Assuming that Gargano is involved with the purchase of Renegade, it’s not surprising. Renegade’s terroir-obsessed ethos perfectly aligns with Gargano’s and his prior investments. Gargano signaled as such back in 2019, writing in a Facebook post:
Grenada,W.I. Renegade rum distillery: an astonishing project will see the light in next few months 🙂 I am so happy! this project have nothing to do with Velier but is 101% in Velier philosophy
At this point, I’ll note that in my prior article, I speculated who the buyer could be, noting it might be “A smaller but very passionate player in the rum space looking to acquire its own distillery at a good price.” This description describes Gargano quite well, I do say.
Having followed Reynier’s story closely for several years, I can’t help but notice this is the second time that Reynier has sold a distillery under less-than-ideal circumstances. In 2012, his board and fellow investors outvoted him 7-1 to sell Bruichladdich to Remy Cointreau. One can’t help but wonder if a similar situation happened here. Based on company filings, Reynier does not appear to be the largest shareholder, at least at the time of the filing. His fellow investors may have seen a long and uncertain road to profitability and wanted out.
Again, this is only speculation based on a few data points, but with substantial background knowledge of the (possible) players involved. And if I got it wrong, I’ll happily state it as such. Either way, I look forward to learning more as this story unfolds.
Just a quick update for the record and associated timestamp should anyone question what I wrote. At this point, it appears that Gargano and any associated investors seem to have stepped away from a purchase - for now at least.
Indeed, thank you for the update!! Renegade was never available here in the FL Panhandle and in wanting to support the local bottle shops as best I can, I never purchased a bottle online. I foolishly thought this distillery would be around for the long haul and eventually it would make it's way up here...Here is hoping the purchase will allow them to re-hire the locals and continue the renewed cane (for rum) production on the Island.