As the seventh generation leader of a two-century-old business, one might assume Malcolm Gosling would be committed to the business practices of his forefathers, but ?stubbornly? sticking to his predecessors? ways of selling rum is the furthest thing from his mind.

Mr. Gosling has engaged in a large scale push of late to move the Gosling brand globally and make Bermuda?s largest exporting company a serious contender in the world rum market. The move breaks with Gosling?s tradition of sticking primarily to the local market.

At the same time, the company has also ventured into gourmet products with the launch of rum cakes, sauces and preserves. Here at home, the Goslings are completely updating the Dundonald Street headquarters with the addition of some 20,000 square feet and innovative add-ons to cater to local customers.

Although Black Seal has long been the best selling spirit in Bermuda, vodka is actually the biggest selling spirit overseas. In the US alone last year consumers bought 40 million cases of vodka as compared to just 19 million cases of rum. However, consumer taste is gradually shifting towards rum overseas and it is a trend with which Mr. Gosling wants to be associated.

?There has been a tremendous amount of focus on the aged rum and premium rum category. Before rum was seen as a second class spirit almost ? it just wasn?t a refined spirit in a lot of consumer?s minds ? but now it has been getting a lot of attention because a lot of the global companies are snapping up these distilleries and they are putting serious marketing efforts behind it so, it is bringing rum to the forefront,? Mr. Gosling said.

With rum getting more attention and expected to close in on the vodka category in terms of sales, the time was ripe for Gosling?s to launch its own push into the world rum market. In April this year, it formed a US company with Castle Brands, an international producer and marketer of premium spirits which holds a ?slightly larger percentage than 50 percent? of the global company.

Gosling Castle Partners is responsible for all of the marketing and distribution of the Black Seal line throughout the world although Gosling?s retains sole responsibility in the Bermuda market and ownership of the trademarks and will continue to blend all of the rum in its Bermuda warehouse.

?We want to be a mainstay of the rum category. That is what our goal is,? Mr. Gosling said adding that the time is ripe for GCP to position Black Seal in the world market before it gets as congested as the vodka market.

?The vodka category has gotten so massive. It is just entry after entry and the consumer is confused and so what happens is that people fall back to the old mainstays [Smirnoff, Absolute that were there in the beginning before all the new product introductions.

?The [mainstays are now coming back to the forefront and that is our strategy with rum because when rum as a category grows, there is going to be a tremendous number of entries, new brands just created will go in and try to capture some of these sales by the bigger companies so we need to make sure that we have a firm base now,? he said.

Mr. Gosling has himself moved to Boston to help position the brand although he is adamant that it is only a temporary situation and he fully plans to return to Bermuda when things settle down.

GCP has also hired advertising agency Kelly and Company which has also created advertising campaigns for super premium niche brands like BMW and Steinway pianos.

Mr. Gosling said: ?Glen Kelly looked at what Bacardi sells, what Captain Morgan sells, Malibu... they are all up over one million cases. Then he came down to our number and said ?did you tell me you were having your 200th anniversary in 2006?? I said ?yeah?. He said, ?and this is the best you guys can do in 200 years???

With these things in mind, his agency created a campaign based on the family?s ?Seven Stubborn Generations? and the resulting historic scarcity of the products outside Bermuda.

?He basically formed the campaign on scarcity equals desire,? Mr. Gosling said adding that the company now has billboards running pretty well down the east coast and right through to Texas and Louisiana.

?That is having a big impact, it is creating a lot of awareness for our product.?

The advertising agency has also taken a few risks, particularly with a billboard on the Massachusetts Turnpike which said the rum is ?Almost as hard to find as Whitey Bulger?.

Mr. Bulger was one of the leaders of the Boston ?mob?, also referred to as the Irish Mafia and he has been on the FBI?s Most Wanted list for the better part of a decade.

?That billboard got us a whole section in the Boston Globe newspaper and it was on every news station for more than a day just because it was very creative,? Mr. Gosling said.

?The one thing about Kelly and Company is that they come up with some very creative ideas. Some I don?t choose to go with because sometimes they walk too fine of a line, but there is nothing wrong with a little bit of controversy as long as it keeps in line with your image and the brand strategy.?

The strategy appears to be working garnering even more press in the trade magazines. Beverage Industry news is now planning to do a cover story while Cigar Aficionado has also put in a request for an interview.

?It is all because of the rum category and it is new,? Mr. Gosling said, adding that he plans to keep the growth of the company slow and steady. Last year, the Gosling?s Export arm sold some 50,000 cases in the US, 10,000 cases in Canada and a few more thousand via duty free and in the Caribbean. They have since begun distributing the product in the UK and Italy and have seen significant growth in sales to the cruiseships.

?Our plan is to manage it and keep a focus and keep the brand image consistent from market to market and gradually we will be adding countries on. We have tremendous interest coming from Germany, France and Ireland and so those will probably be the next steps for us to hit those markets.?

The desire is to see the brand eventually hit 500,000 cases per year in the US, which is the largest rum market in the world.

?Once you are up over 100,000 cases in the US you are truly considered a national brand and then it gets much easier to grow after that point because you have serious recognition to fall back on,? Mr. Gosling said.

?When the category starts to get crowded, people are going to get confused over which brand they like or want to drink on a regular basis, and not only that, but there will be so many that not every bar can carry them all.

?If you choose to drink this obscure brand, then chances are you won?t be able to drink it at many places because they have to carry the mainstays so, that is what we want to be. We want to be a mainstay in the rum category.?

GCP is focusing its positioning efforts on bars as the key way to attract new customers as people are generally more inclined to drop several dollars at a bar to try out a new drink over spending much more than that at a store on an unfamiliar bottle.

As part of its bid to enter the US market, Gosling?s has added the premium Family Reserve Old Rum to its line. It also unveiled the Gold Bermuda Rum last year because amber rums are more popular than dark rums in North America.

?We are finding that we are grabbing distribution and there is no cannibalisation. We are not losing Black Seal Rum drinkers to Gold because our sales are increasing here and they are looking pretty good with Gold,? Mr. Gosling said.

Gosling Brothers Ltd. is also bringing other Bermuda names along on its marketing ride. In New Hampshire liquor stores it is holding a sweepstakes draw in conjunction with Fairmont Hotels and the Bermuda Department of Tourism to send three couples on a trip to the Island.

It has also been selling some of its 750 ml bottles of Black Seal packed together with two cans of Barritt?s Ginger beer.

Beyond the spirits themselves, Gosling Brothers Ltd. is also being a ?little more creative? in its marketing efforts as it strives to get its name out.

New company Gosling?s Gourmet has just unveiled a line of gourmet cakes, sauces and preserves which all have a base of Black Seal rum. It is also making efforts with restaurants to have chefs use the rum as an ingredient in some of their cooking creations.

Here at home, the company is also moving to draw in local clients with current renovations to its premises on Dundonald Street. The extreme makeover ? which will add some 20,000 square feet to the premises ? was designed to accommodate an expanding product line as well as to smarten up the exterior and interior of the 20-year-old space.

The new building will incorporate a new retail space as well as a state-of-the-art wine tasting facility and private wine storage cellars so that customers who do not have cellars at home can store their prized wine in at private bins.

The construction will also create faster ways to load and unload containers and will greatly increase the blending space to accommodate the overseas demand for the rum as ?every single drop of Gosling rums is blended in Bermuda?.