Top 10 best-selling rum Brand Champions 2025
The world’s biggest rum brands had a difficult time in 2024 – although one had a great comeback story.
Four of the top five best-selling rum brands recorded declines in 2024 – with one plunging by more than 40%.
There were mixed fortunes for Indian rums, while one African brand – Kenya Cane – stormed ahead with a nearly 40% increase in volume sales.
According to Euromonitor, the category is expected to grow in 2024, from 160 million nine-litre cases to 165m, a year-on-year increase of 3%.
But which brands had cause to celebrate in 2024, and which will be hoping for a turnaround in 2025?
Scroll down to see the biggest performers from The Brand Champions 2025 report.
The data is listed to one decimal place for ease of reading, but the percentage changes were calculated on the full data supplied. All data is recorded in millions of nine-litre cases.
10. Contessa
Volume: 2020: 1.1m | 2021: 1.3m | 2022: 1.3m | 2023: 1.3m | 2024: 1.1m
% change: -13.4%
Place last year: 9
Our top 10 list kicks off with a stumble, with Radico Khaitan’s Contessa brand sinking by double digits and falling down a spot to 10th. This puts it back at its pre-Covid level of 1.1m cases – so it could simply be a case of normalisation, rather than deceleration. Let’s see what 2025 brings for the Indian rum brand…
9. Old Port
Volume: 2020: 1.6m | 2021: 1.2m | 2022: 1.5m | 2023: 2.1m | 2024: 1.2m
% change: -43.7%
Place last year: 6
Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. Amrut Distiller’s Old Port brand suffered the biggest fall of any rum brand – and one of the biggest of any spirits brand – in The Brand Champions in 2024, sinking by 43.7%.
It’s worth noting that the brand soared by 42% in 2023 – so its recent fall merely puts it back on track with 2021’s figures.
8. 1965 Spirit of Victory
Volume: 2020: 0.4m | 2021: 0.6m | 2022: 0.9m | 2023: 1.2m | 2024: 1.2m
% change: 5.2%
Place last year: N/A
Finally, a bit of positive news. Our Rum Brand Champion from 2024 – selected after growing by 31.8% to pass the 1m-case mark for the first time – saw continued growth last year, rising by 5.2% and sticking at 1.2m cases. This was enough for it to sail into the top 10 for the first time – and in an impressive eighth spot, nonetheless.
7. Božkov
Volume: 2020: 1.2m | 2021: 1.4m | 2022: 1.3m | 2023: 1.4m | 2024: 1.4m
% change: -0.7%
Place last year: 8
It’s the same old, same old for Stock Spirits Group’s Božkov brand, which experienced stagnant volume sales in 2024. In this list, standing still can be a step forward – thanks to Old Port’s stumble down the top 10, Božkov has managed to gain one place.
Stock Spirits has made a series of big moves in 2025 – including a brand refresh, acquiring a UK distributor and appointing a former Pernod Ricard director as chief marketing officer. Could it pay off for Božkov?
6. Ron Barceló
Volume: 2020: 2.1m | 2021: 2.4m | 2022: 2.4m | 2023: 2.2m | 2024: 2.2m
% change: 0.2%
Place last year: 7
Ron Barceló is another brand to benefit from Old Port’s defeat, with the Dominican rum brand rising by one place despite stagnant sales.
In 2024, the brand added a mizunara cask-finished rum to its Imperial Rare Blends series, which fed into its plans to become the world’s most exported dark rum. Plus, earlier this year, it partnered with Disaronno International to enhance its presence in the UK – meaning that aim could be even closer.
5. Havana Club
Volume: 2020: 4.1m | 2021: 4.3m | 2022: 4.6m | 2023: 3.8m | 2024: 3.3m
% change: -13.8%
Place last year: 5
While most of the world has been reeling from the ongoing US tariff debacle, Pernod Ricard’s Havana Club has been struggling with its own problems.
The Cuban rum brand has been afflicted by a trade embargo from the US since the sixties, with its CEO claiming Havana Club is missing out on 35% of the world’s rum market because of it.
While this means that tariffs won’t make a bit of difference, in late 2024, Pernod Ricard was also hit by a bill rejecting its claim to its trademark, with the US upholding Bacardi’s rights to the Havana Club name instead.
Despite this, its global marketing director believes that maintaining the quality of its product in times of financial uncertainty is key to encouraging brand loyalty – here’s hoping it works out for 2025.
4. McDowell’s Rum
Volume: 2020: 8.1m | 2021: 8.4m | 2022: 8.8m | 2023: 6.5m | 2024: 6.1m
% change: -5.7%
Place last year: 4
McDowell’s Rum continues its downward trajectory in 2024, posting a 5.7% decline to hit 6.1m cases. That’s less than three-quarters of its 2022 volume – and its lowest in more than five years.
While the brand has retained its place at number four for now, continued double-digit drops like last year’s could put its top-five status at risk in 2025.
3. Captain Morgan
Volume: 2020: 11.9m | 2021: 12.7m | 2022: 12.9m | 2023: 12.1m | 2024: 11.5m
% change: -5%
Place last year: 3
Another year, another slip for Diageo’s Captain Morgan – though its 5% decline is less severe than some of the other major players in this list. The brand still comfortably holds onto third place, but it’s now further away from the nearly 13m-case peak it hit in 2022.
In 2024, Captain Morgan’s focus seemed to be more on the ready-to-drink (RTD) market than on rum. It partnered with PepsiCo to launch a co-branded RTD line – hoping to emulate the success that Jack Daniel’s found with Coca-Cola.
But will this shift in focus come at the expense of the core rum brand? Possibly – especially with the launch of a malt-based RTD in the US.
2. Bacardí
Volume: 2020: 17.2m | 2021: 19.2m | 2022: 21.1m | 2023: 20.6m | 2024: 19.7m
% change: -4.2%
Place last year: 2
That trademark debacle over the Havana Club name that we mentioned earlier doesn’t seem to have worked out for Bacardi’s flagship rum brand either. Its volume sales decreased by 4.2% and fell below the 20m milestone that it achieved in both 2022 and 2023.
The firm has recently appointed a new senior vice-president for Bacardí and rums – so it could be on the up again next year.
1. Tanduay
Volume: 2020: 23.7m | 2021: 23.6m | 2022: 27.4m | 2023: 23.4m | 2024: 23.8m
% change: 1.9%
Place last year: 1
Finally, some good news. In first place and bagging the title of Rum Brand Champion is Tanduay Distillers’ flagship brand, which rose by 1.9% in what has clearly been a difficult time for the big rum brands.
It’s a great comeback story for Tanduay, which slumped by 14.7% to 23.4m in 2023 – the lowest figure it had posted since the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Roy Kristoffer Sumang, the brand’s international business development manager, success can mainly be attributed to its 5 Years expression, which remains a “cornerstone” of its growth.
Domestically is where the brand is performing best and where most of its strategic focus lies, but there have been “notable performances in the US, Belgium, Ukraine and the UAE” – markets where Sumang says “rum appreciation is growing”.
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