Boutique Auckland brand Jumping Goat has been capitalising on the boom of craft liquor over the last two years, and the horizon looks to be even brighter with the investment of a large Australian liquor distributor in recent months.
This week the brand has announced that Red Island Group, based in Melbourne, has invested into the New Zealand based business and will provide financial and business support, to ensure that fast growth of the coffee infused liquor continues. Red Island Group is well known for introducing Rekorderlig Cider into the Australian liquor market in 2010 and achieving growth that many brands could only dream of. They have since sold the distribution rights for the range of ciders to Coca Cola and are now focusing their efforts on new brands with potential for similar growth. Red Island currently distributes a range of premium-imported spirits, and also founded Quiet Deeds, a craft beer brand now sold throughout Australia.
“Whilst we work closely with all our supply partners, in the case of Jumping Goat we saw an amazing product with huge potential so we decided to go that step further into acquiring a shareholding” said Patrick Ale, Founder of Red Island.
“Since its introduction to the Melbourne bar scene about 6 months ago, we have seen fantastic uptake in key bars and fast growth of sales due to the high quality and crafted nature of the product alongside the fun and quirky attitude of the brand”
Red Island will be working closely with Jumping Goat founder Callum O’Brien in the relationship to develop and improve existing products and processes and launch new and innovative products under the same umbrella (the first of which will hit shelves in the coming months).
“Since working with the guys in Melbourne over the past few months we have made massive progress on all angles of the business” said Callum. “The core range of coffee infused liqueurs, our 35% ABV Vodka and Whisky, have been improved drastically with the introduction of better cold brew coffee production methods, changes to the base spirits and the way they are filtered and clarified, and significant improvements in the design of the bottles and packaging”
“We only sold our first bottle in November of 2013 and it’s crazy to think of the changes that have been made since then. Tasting the current products alongside even those of 12 months ago is an amazing process as the smoothness and balance of the coffee and spirit is constantly improving as we tweak each batch”
He adds that the intention was to always take Jumping Goat as far as he could without the need for selling shareholding, “and that time was creeping up on me when Red Island discussed a potential agreement to buy in about 6 months ago. We have a great business relationship and it seemed like a perfect solution to the imminent capital-raising hurdle. They are bringing far more to the table than just capital in this case and I am excited to see where this could potentially take the brand. We have been working hard on developing some new and extremely innovative products together over the past few months and this would never have been possible without their input”
Launched in late 2013, Jumping Goat liquor products are focused heavily around the use of high quality organic and fair trade coffee. Whilst the products were initially just targeted around the late night cocktail scene and cocktails like the Espresso Martini, they have been adopted in many bars as the late ‘pick me up’ night shot of choice due to the coffee concentration and awakening effects.
The products are ranged in bars and retail outlets all over the country and now available in Duty Free stores.
