Bols has ‘room to grow’ white spirits

Lucas Bols has “a lot of room to grow” its white spirits portfolio, according to CEO Huub van Doorne, who believes the company must “remain nimble, small and look at the right niches”.

Lucas Bols CEO says the firm’s white spirits portfolio has “a lot of room to grow”

Speaking to The Spirits Business in Amsterdam, Doorne acknowledged that Bols’s white spirits range, currently comprising Bols Genever, Bols Vodka and Damrak Gin, has room to expand.

“We are always looking at opportunities that can fit in our portfolio – either in distribution terms or brands which could fit on this,” he said. “For example, it would not be very logical to add maybe whisky in our portfolio. It’s ageing, it’s a different category – it would not be the first one I would be looking at.

“We still have a lot of room to grow our white spirits.”

In addition, Doorne emphasised the company’s intention to nurture its current portfolio – including the Passoã joint venture, which was finalised with Rémy Cointreau Group last week.

“The danger is always when you have one thing and then you move quickly to another,” he explained. “At the moment we would focus on the opportunities we have.

“We need to remain nimble and small and looking at the right niches.”

When broaching Passoã, Doorne emphasised the brand’s potential in the global cocktail scene, adding that it fits “perfectly” in the firm’s portfolio of global brands.

“We believe it is under-utilised and under-promoted in the cocktail scene. In the UK the brand is doing extremely well, growing on the Pornstar Martini, for example,” he said.

“It is a well-known consumer brand in North West Europe – France, Belgium and the Netherlands – there we need to work to revitalise it, and they’ve already started that, but also move a little bit more into the cocktail scene.

“We believe it has potential in our own company in the US because it’s only sold in a few markets [here]. Lucas Bols USA will be instrumental to do that.

“We don’t need a huge investment in terms of organisation, structure, so it fits our model pretty well.”