Select Brands' crack team

• McConnell, Desnoes plugging the gap in spirits distribution

Steven Jackson, Business Reporter

Newly formed spirits distributorship Select Brands expects to generate J$1 billion in annual sales in three years, but its managers argue that the brand's growth will not snatch market share from their former employer Lascelles deMercado.

The distributorship, which has four former Lascelles managers on board, will initially market and distribute 156 products.

"We expect sales of J$1 billion in three to five years. We are very sure about hitting that target. It could be a conservative figure," said Andrew Desnoes in an interview with the Financial Gleaner on Monday.

The confidence comes from Select Brands' management team with decades of wines and spirits experience, recent brand acquisitions from competitors and its sizeable warehouse of 18,000 square feet on Spanish Town Road.

Some of its brands for distribution include Robert Mondavi Wines, Hardy's Wines, Stolichnaya Vodka, Santa Margherita, and Glenfiddich.

Select Brands' team of 50 - half of whom are contract workers - includes former Lascelles heavyweights David McConnell, who was managing director of Global Marketing Division of J. Wray & Nephew Limited; Andrew Desnoes, who managed the marketing department at Lascelles Wine and Spirits; Debra Taylor who managed imported wines, Lascelles Wines and Spirits; and Dominic Beckford, who was brand sales manager at J. Wray and Nephew. Beckford will officially join the spirits distributorship next week.

The company was con-ceptualised at a social event during the summer and quickly became incorporated in September, recalled Desnoes and McConnell. The birth of the company coincided with a management change at Lascelles during which Fraser Thornton assumed the position of group managing director from William 'Billy' McConnell, father of David.

David McConnell said he decided to leave voluntarily at the time of his father's retirement. "I was not asked to leave," he said about his June 30 departure.

Select Brands is owned by Ringtail Holdings, a St Lucia-based entity controlled equally by Desnoes and McConnell, according to David. Billy McConnell has no involvement in the company.

"Select Brands has no influence from me," father McConnell told the Financial Gleaner on Monday. "That is their thing," he said.

McConnell currently heads a group of investors called Black Sand, which is seeking to acquire the Lascelles group via an unsolicited takeover bid. David McConnell argued that Select Brands would not conflict with Lascelles, which produces the renowned Wray & Nephew and Appleton brands.

"The future of Lascelles is in growing the Appleton brand globally. Select Brands' focus is on Jamaica and building brands here," said McConnell.

Added Desnoes: "Our area of concentration ... is not the focus for Lascelles. Plus, we are also going into other avenues such as food. So if the BlackSand bid is successful there is no conflict, if it is not successful there is still no conflict."

McConnell and Desnoes argue that the market suffers from few distributors.

"Trinidad and Tobago probably has two times the number of distributors compared to Jamaica, despite having half the population. We felt that what we needed in Jamaica was a focussed distributor that can build brands," said Desnoes. "We know how to take a brand performing below potential and energising it and getting it to its true potential."

Said McConnell: "We are coming into the market to become an option for those who not only want a distributor but also a brand builder".

Lascelles, through its various businesses, both distils and distributes spirits. The conglomerate's annual sales top J$25 billion.

William McConnell, who ran Lascelles for three decades up to June 30, launched a takeover bid for majority shares in Lascelles deMercado on July 29. The offer has been extended twice, the latest to December 31, while Lascelles and its parent CL Financial Group of Trinidad challenge the efficacy of the offer in court.

Black Sand said it intends to stabilise the operations of Lascelles and its subsidiaries if it is successful in its takeover bid. Lascelles operates in five segments across a number of sectors, but its most dominant is spirits, distributing and exporting rums, wines and other liquor-based products.

business@gleanerjm.com