St. Vincent Distillers | 3
O
n a small Caribbean island like St. Vincent, success is mea-
sured in small increments. When St. Vincent Distillers Ltd.
was awarded the gold medal as “World’s Best Rum” at the
annual World Drinks Awards in London for its Captain Bligh brand of
aged rum, General Manager Kenrick Greaves took the news in stride.
Greaves, who has been at the helmof SVDL since 1997, never doubt-
ed that the distillery produced a superior product. But with a maxi-
mum capacity of only about 175,000 gallons annually, he knew it was
pointless to shout it from the rooftop. Instead, he set about improving
the physical plant, securing a reliable source of molasses for production,
building a solid marketing plan and gradually improving the quality of
the company’s premium product line to maximize profits.
To understand Greaves’ thinking, you need to step back in time. St.
Vincent (officially St Vincent and the Grenadines), is a small island na-
tion of roughly 100,000 people comprised of approximately 15 islands,
of which St. Vincent is the mainland. It’s capital, Kingstown, is a bus-
