Latest / Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation / From Sugar Mills to Rum Distillery on Kauai - with Koloa Rum CEO Bob Gunter

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From Sugar Mills to Rum Distillery on Kauai - with Koloa Rum CEO Bob Gunter · Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation

• 0:00
  Bob Gunter: So the history of sugarcane. Why in Hawaii is long and very significance in terms of our heritage. Bob Gunter is the President and CEO of Khloe ROM company. glow ROM is located on the island of Hawaii, and has been around since September of 2009. However, the history of sugar and rum production on the island of Hawaii dates back all the way to 1835. And in this conversation with Bob, we got to hear a lot about the history of the sugar Mills on Hawaii, and how today Hello rum is sourcing locally. glow rum company's vision is to be a multifaceted Hawaii based manufacturer that has focused on the development and sale of superior value added products from a wide variety of locally sourced agricultural ingredients. We talk a lot about that how they are sourcing locally in Cologne ROM company fully promotes sound and sustainable agricultural practices and believes that the eventual success of his products will provide meaningful support and diversity to the local agricultural industry and serve to stimulate employment increase cultivated acreage and preserve open space. This is one you're not going to want to miss. Stay tuned. Let's cue the intro.
• 1:26
  Bryan Murphy: Aloha. Welcome to Hawaii's Best podcast. Learn the stories behind Hawaii's Best experiences, influencers and businesses. Discover everything that makes Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host, Brian Murphy. Well, Aloha and welcome to Episode 10 of Hawaii's best podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I'm so excited that you are here. If you're new here, go ahead and hit subscribe and drop a review below that this lets other people who love Hawaii be able to find this podcast and this conversation.
• 1:58
  Bryan Murphy: Well, I am just so excited for today's so let's go ahead and get into our conversation with Bob Gunter from clover ROM company in talk story.
• 2:16
  Bob Gunter: Well, Bob, thank you so much for joining us today on Hawaii's Best. How are you doing today on this beautiful Monday?
• 2:23
  Unknown: Not doing very well.
• 2:23
  Unknown: Thank you appreciate you taking time to call and talk.
• 2:28
  Bob Gunter: Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about yourself in your role. Hello, Ron.
• 2:33
  Unknown: Well, I am the president and CEO of Colombo run company, we formed the company back actually incorporated in 2006. But we began to design and permit and build out our distillery, beginning in early 2008. And be completed that process and actually began bottling and selling rum in September of 2009. And so this September, we'll make 10 years having been producing rum here on the island of Hawaii.
• 3:13
  Bob Gunter: That's great. When did you come on with the company
• 3:16
  Unknown: I came on in the beginning that is early, early 2008 when the decision was made to actually move forward and began the construction, design and construction and build out of the distillery. So I was on board from the beginning, went through the permitting process and then got us to the point that we were actually making ROM and then have been, of course, in the position since then, from the beginning stages.
• 3:46
  Bob Gunter: What was the vision behind starting claw ROM company?
• 3:51
  Unknown: Well, for myself, personally, I've lived in Hawaii for many years and and worked in the sugar industry here on kowai for a good many of those years.
• 3:59
  Unknown: And so my heart is in, in sugarcane. And of course now all of the commercial sugar plantations, operations have closed and which is very sad to many of us who who grew up lived and worked, you know, during that era. And so now being able to do actually plant grow and otherwise use sugar cane grown here on Hawaii to make rum really brings it full circle for me. And it's really gratifying to to keep to that, that heritage, that history alive here on kawhi. Over the years, I've worked on two different micro distillery projects on the island of Maui, which is really where I was introduced to the industry and and distillery operations and Through the five or six years that I worked on those two projects, I gained a lot of experience and knowledge of the business and, and equally important was able to meet a lot of key people who had industry experience. And so when we began to conceptualize input color ROM together, I was able to call to use that experience that I had gained on those two project and also was able to bring in some consultants that I had met over the years and had them on hand to assist in the very early stages, you know, putting the project together. But getting to your, I guess, the key point of your question. At the beginning, our intent was to help support our sugar industry here in Hawaii. At that time, we still had several plantations in operation producing sugar. And we also wanted to do our part in helping to preserve the agricultural industry here in Hawaii, and help to diversify our economy, which is, of course, heavily dependent on tourism. And we wanted to create employment opportunities for our local people. In doing so, of course, we had hoped to eventually be successful and perhaps make some money, but it really was a combination of all of those things that, you know, was behind the, the initial concept, and I guess the motivation to, to put this project together and see it through,
• 6:39
  Bob Gunter: I think that's great, a lot a lot of people I talked to, they highlight the importance of sourcing locally and doing whatever they can to utilize local production. And you kind of answered this question, but why, in your opinion, does that matter sourcing locally?
• 6:56
  Unknown: Well, it's especially important for those of us who live in Hawaii, I mean, we do live on islands. And so we were also Hawaii is of course, the most remote populated archipelago in the world. And so we sustainability and being able to, to survive on products and you know, goods and services that are produced locally, just makes sense. Because we're, it's a long way to the mainland, that it takes a lot of time to get products, goods and services, supplies and so forth, shipped in from the mainland. And it's also very expensive, in terms of freight 90%, of the consumables in Hawaii, are shipped in the ocean freight, and the freight rates. Unfortunately, in Hawaii, ocean freight rates are very, very expensive. So from a, from a business perspective, in terms of cost, and so forth, it just makes sense. To source as many products and goods and services locally as we can. And it also serves to, you know, provide jobs, you know, in economic diversity here in in Hawaii.
• 8:14
  Unknown: Right. And later on I you know, I'm excited to talk a little bit more about how you guys, your guyses plans and expanding that.
• 8:20
  Unknown: But maybe before we get there in these past 10 years now just kind of cool marker.
• 8:25
  Bob Gunter: What have you seen the the attributing factors to your guys's success?
• 8:30
  Unknown: Well, first and foremost, I think what's notable is that all of us that are involved, most all of us involved in colo run from the beginning, are either from Hawaii originally or have lived and worked here for many years.
• 8:47
  Unknown: So we're, we're home grown. And so we really weren't, I often tell people sort of joking way that we're not a bunch of Harvard MBAs with pockets full of venture capital, who thought it would be cool to go out to Hawaii and build a rum distillery. Most of us are, you know, homegrown. And, and this is, you know, important for us.
• 9:10
  Unknown: And also, we failure was not an option. That's an option often use phrase, but, you know, we we literally put those of us who provided the capital in the beginning to get this started, really had to make it be a success or we know that the alternative would not be pleasant, then we also realize that manufacturing in Hawaii is daunting from any perspective, but especially the cost of doing business here. And manufacturing is really an expensive proposition. You know, again, going the fact that we're so remote and having to having so many things shipped in and out you know, it's it's not a level playing field for those of us who are involved in manufacturing and you Hawaii in terms of being able to compete outside of the state, which we certainly we certainly do, but we we've decided there was no way that we would be able to compete on price of our product, because it would be more expensive to produce it. So we decided that it would make better sense for us to, to focus on making superior products and compete on the quality of product. And the uniqueness of those products, meaning that they're made in Hawaii is unique. Most people don't associate Hawaii with a being a rum producing region or distilled spirits producing region. And we would leverage that uniqueness through our visitor industry. Last year, we had almost 10 million visitors to the state. And, of course, that's a market that we certainly do our best to, to leverage in every eight to 10 days, we get a new set of visitors coming in, and they're coming from all over the world.
• 11:04
  Unknown: But you know, of course, mostly North America and in the, you know, the 48 states. And so, having the ability to introduce our products to those people coming from all these different places, we thought was an advantage that we could exploit.
• 11:21
  Unknown: And so, again, we wanted, we knew that we couldn't compete on price, we had to compete on the quality of the product and, and do our best to leverage our visitor industry. And that was what we thought was our competitive edge. In retrospect, now looking back that has worked for us.
• 11:38
  Bob Gunter: Yeah, definitely.
• 11:38
  Bob Gunter: Anytime I'm around Hawaii, come into your guys's facility, the way you guys have it laid out and even the tasting room. I wonder if you can speak into a little bit about if someone's coming to Hawaii for a visit?
• 11:52
  Bob Gunter: What what type of experience are you hoping that they walk away from Colorado?
• 11:57
  Unknown: First and foremost, we're always welcoming of visitors and happy to have people come and experience the island of Hawaii, the Garden Island, oldest Island geologically speaking in the chain, and we think it's beautiful. We also want them certainly to, you know, to have the opportunity to try our rums and get a sense of the quality of the product. And, and the fact that it's it's all done here. All of our distilling, blending, bottling packaging, shipping is done right here from the from the island of Hawaii.
• 12:36
  Unknown: And the fact that we're growing more and more of the sugarcane that is being incorporated into making our products is is exciting, and something that we're eager to share with people. But we also add our tasting room. A couple of things that I think are unique, especially when compared to some of the wineries on the mainland and so forth is that we don't charge for our tastings. And we don't we never will. So it's completely free to the public.
• 13:03
  Unknown: And during the the actual tastings, our bartenders give a brief overview of the history of Hawaii, the history of Hawaii, the history of the sugar industry, and sugarcane in Hawaii, and then and then afford them the opportunity to try three or four or five of our, our different products on any given day. And hopefully they go away with more information in a better sense of what the island is all about. And what our our our philosophy is, if you will about making rum and you know in doing business here
• 13:45
  Bob Gunter: in rum production in general in Hawaii in 1837, there was the first harvest of sugar rum production was also started.
• 13:54
  Bob Gunter: What has run production been like, in those years on quality?
• 13:58
  Bob Gunter: Have they been non existent or more just smaller productions?
• 14:03
  Unknown: What we do know is that the first successful Sugar Mill, the first one in Hawaii was started in koloa, on the island of Hawaii. At first operation that first mill the company was called lad and company. And it also represented the first commercial land lease that was ever awarded by the Hawaiian monarchy. Okay, that was many years before statehood, right.
• 14:32
  Unknown: And it was from that first, that first planting in 1835. And the first harvest Two years later, that was the beginning of the sugar industry in Hawaii, which for many years was the was the game of agricultural and commercial operations in Hawaii.
• 14:52
  Unknown: And at one point there was upwards of 150 different independent sugar Mills around the state but the very first Successful mill that we then ran continuously up until the 2000s was the kilo mill. We also know from the ship's logs from Captain James Cook's days when they first discovered Hawaii, at least as far as the Western world is concerned back in 70 of da they found sugarcane growing into koloa district. So we know that sugarcane predates Western contact in Hawaii and that it was brought by the ancient Polynesian voyagers on their migrations up from the Hedy Lamarr cases and other South Pacific Islands. So the history of sugarcane. Why in Hawaii is long and very significance in terms of our heritage and culture here,
• 16:45
  Bob Gunter: not only recently, I see in the last few years, the last Sugar Mill closed that was on the Big Island. Is that right?
• 16:53
  Unknown: Oh, that was actually on Maui. Okay. When we began producing ROM here in 2009, there was an operating Sugar Mill here on Hawaii, okay. And Dan Robinson plantation, and it closed in the winter of 2010, December 2010. And when that happened, we purchased 60 tons of sugar, raw sugar from them, last us for some period of time, and it lasted us about a year and a half, two years. And then we began purchasing sugar and shipping it in from h CNS, plantation, Hawaiian commercial and sugar company over in Maui.
• 17:30
  Unknown: And we continue that relationship until they announced that they were closing about two years ago. And then we contracted with them to buy 190 tons of sugar from them from their last harvest. And we had it shipped over and store here on kawaii and we've been using that sugar, you know, since then. And we're down now to approximately right about 100 tons left. So that's another couple of years supply for us, depending on how demand goes.
• 18:08
  Unknown: And so we're really ramping up our cane planting and cultivation. We're soon planting another 10 acres of sugarcane and koloa town near the site of our where our new distillery will be built in the next year or so. And we also have a cane field out on the on the west side of the island out on former Gan Robinson plantation land where we are growing cane and we are harvesting crushing that cane and using the juice to supplement the raw sugar that we use and in making our rum and so our objective is to over the next year and a half or two years to to plant is is much more acreage as we are able to so that we can hopefully get to the point that that we could be self sustaining with cane that we that we grow here or have others grow for us here on kawaii amazing.
• 19:10
  Bob Gunter: I love that maybe unpack that a little bit just the new facility. And what are some of those plans that we can look forward to?
• 19:17
  Unknown: Yes, we have acquired the use of 18 acres of former river plantation land on the outskirts of koloa town. And we have approved plans to construct a 45,000 square foot distillery and warehouse which will more than double the production capacity for us. We will have on site a freestanding tasting room and company store will also have a cafe where visitors can have a light lunch and a cocktail, relax and enjoy the the location. We'll also have a museum that is in the form of an old colonial mill plantation camp house that was originally constructed in around 1915. So it's more than 100 years old.
• 20:11
  Unknown: And we're in the process of refurbishing that and fitting it out with period furniture, an artifact old photographs and articles. It's a habit serve as a memorial to memorialize the history of Colonia mill and the sugar in restarting here on kawhi. And that project is well underway. And we hope to have the production facility the new distillery built and ready to occupy in about 12 to 14 months from now.
• 20:40
  Bob Gunter: That's great and your current facility will that still be operational in addition to the new one.
• 20:46
  Unknown: Our plans now are to shift the bulk of the production activity to the new facility and that would include distillation and bottling and packaging. What we may do is retain is that the use of this our current facility and use it for excess storage and warehousing, and barrel aging,
• 21:07
  Bob Gunter: as you are expanding and in your own personal leadership and leading the company, how do you balance? Or how do you lead from? aloha? I hear that a lot from business owners how to lead a business with aloha at the forefront?
• 21:25
  Unknown: That's an interesting question. You know, I mentioned earlier about living on islands.
• 21:28
  Unknown: And in doing so, you know, we tend to have, we speak a lot about ohana, which is of course family. And those of us who live and work here, we know, everyone knows everyone else for the most part. And so we're very close knit. And and also just by nature of, of living on islands, we tend to be self reliant and but also in interdependent, we depend on each other we have to, especially in times of need. So there, there is a sense of family, again, ohana with us here at Colonial rum. In terms of any type of business philosophy, we we strive to be aboveboard, straightforward, transparent. I mean, you pick the descriptive words, but we want to conduct ourselves in a way that would bring pride on each of us who work here and also on our, our island and our state, because especially when we're outside of Hawaii, and we are rums are sold now in 27 states and three countries, we are representing Hawaii, and we take that very seriously. So, you know, again, we conduct our business and ourselves with with that in mind that we that we are representing the people of Hawaii and the State of Hawaii in doing that. And that's also reflected in the efforts that we put into making superior products, you know, is that, again, we want it all to reflect well, on our Hi, I love that.
• 23:07
  Unknown: And as you are putting yourself in that posture of Aloha and thinking about someone who's coming to Hawaii for a visit, from your perspective, some of your advice, what are some things that you would want people coming to the island to know, obviously,
• 23:29
  Bob Gunter: you're going to want to stop at Clorox, and you're going to want to do that. But what are maybe some other things that you'd want someone coming to Hawaii for a visit? Maybe there's some tips, or maybe there's some etiquette, just to be aware of before coming?
• 23:43
  Unknown: Well, that's interesting. And yes, you know, we, you know, Hawaii certainly is a state, and we're very much a part of the United States and you don't have to change money and you don't have to you don't have to worry about drinking the water. In some places. On the other hand, Hawaii is unique.
• 24:02
  Unknown: And it's, it's totally different than than any other place on the mainland or even Alaska, you know, it's unique. And we do have a host culture here. And that is a horse Hawaiians and other cultures that migrated here over the millennia, you know, to work in the sugar industry and the pineapple industry and so forth. And so there is no true ethnic majority or minority that, you know, we're pretty evenly balanced.
• 24:32
  Unknown: And so it's a very unique demographic here and one that you won't find anywhere else, at least that I've seen. And, and that's, you know, one of the beautiful things I think about Hawaii. And so when people come, especially those who've never been here before, My first suggestion would be once you keep playing, take a deep breath and realize that you're not on the mainland anymore, and that you're in a special place. And just relax. And then I would encourage people at the first opportunity to take the first step and speak and engage with with local people, because you will not and i and i base this on my many, many years of living here is that you will not find any more gentle and genuine and hospitable people anywhere on this earth, then you'll find here on Hawaii and and in Hawaii in general.
• 25:27
  Bob Gunter: I love that in your time on Maui. I'm curious how would you compare those islands Maui and Hawaii?
• 25:35
  Unknown: Oh, well, they've different. But yeah, they're similar. You know, we have eight major islands in Hawaii. The Big Island on Hawaii where the volcano is, of course is the newest Island geologically a little over 500,000 years old.
• 25:49
  Unknown: But still growing with the volcanic activity. Hawaii on the other end of the archipelago is the oldest Island God Logically, and it's billions of years old.
• 25:57
  Unknown: And so, in between, of course you have Maui and Oahu and, and so forth. Hawaii is the fourth largest island geologically and by population and Maui is the second largest. And in terms of geography or landmass, and second most populous to a wahoo, where Honolulu is each of the islands are different. They're, they're beautiful in their own way. I originally moved from the mainland to Hawaii many years ago, and I lived on Hawaii, worked here for many years before eventually moving to Maui and where I lived for 14 years, and then moved back to Hawaii. I love Maui. It's a beautiful place. And it's a little different than then Hawaii. But they're both I think, very beautiful. But if I had to say my preference, that would be that would be Hawaii.
• 26:53
  Bob Gunter: Yeah. I'm curious.
• 26:53
  Bob Gunter: Someone's coming to call around for the first time. What have you guys seen being some of the most popular products that you guys have?
• 27:05
  Unknown: We do a full portfolio of products. We do seven ROMs we do our standard white which is just pure ROM. Great for Mohit O's and daiquiris. and the like.
• 27:15
  Unknown: We do a gold ROM which is quite nice and both the white and the gold are just pure ROMs. And then we have a flavor category we do our dark rum, which is a very bold vanilla note. Man we use Tahitian vanilla when it's available, is absolutely delicious and makes a great float on a cocktail. And also some of the bakers use it in cooking and we actually have a baker that makes a delicious rum cake that we sell in our store maybe with our dark rum and then we have our own version of spice Rama or Hawaii spice that has our proprietary blend of spices and flavorings. And then we have an all natural 80 proof coconut rum, which is you know, I think outstanding and because it's it's a ROM it's 80 proof, it's full strength. And it stands up really well in cocktails and a lot of the mixologist and bartenders like to use it because again because of the flavor profile, but also the you know the strength that at proof it's it's a it's a great cocktail run. And then we do our coffee rum, which is a collaboration between us and quiet Coffee Company, which is here on kawaii and just a footnote quiet Coffee Company is the largest coffee farm in the United States. It's comprised of 3700 acres and they grow a variety of different coffee beans, and they do a special roast and grind for us and then we do a cold brew process. And then blend that freshly brewed coffee with our white rum and add a little bit of cane sugar.
• 29:09
  Bob Gunter: Wow, that sounds amazing.
• 29:10
  Unknown: We bottle it at 68 proof so it's a really old cure but it's absolutely delicious.
• 29:14
  Unknown: And then we do our kawhia reserve rum aged rum that's a minimum of three years of age.
• 29:25
  Unknown: And those are aged and once used to bourbon barrels that we bring in from Kentucky and that is just some of the best sipping rum I think that you'll find anywhere. And then we have our line of ready to drink cocktails. You mentioned the rum punch that's featured onboard Hawaiian Airlines. That's lovely. It's a passion orange guava base with our white rum.
• 29:49
  Unknown: And then we also do what we call it pineapple passion, which is pineapple and passionfruit puree with our white rum and then we do a standard koloa muy Thai cocktail ready to drink.
• 30:02
  Bob Gunter: Do you have a personal favorite go to drink?
• 30:06
  Unknown: I love to cocktails.
• 30:06
  Unknown: But my favorite of the ROMs I would say would be our Hawaii white rum. You know it's pure rum nothing added no sugar or glycerin added back to it and I think it's extremely clean and smooth and and just very sippable and it also mixes well.
• 30:26
  Unknown: Those good neat or straight or mixed with most any in any cocktail.
• 30:36
  Bob Gunter: Bob I just want to say thank you so much again for your time and I look forward to coming in and visiting the new facility in about a year or so and look forward to more updates from you guys. How can people find you and connect more with glow around?
• 30:49
  Unknown: Of course our website koloa rom com is a good starting point and I have to own the website. You will find it tab that says find our rum and visitors can put their city or zip code in, and then click Enter. And then they will see a populated list of stores or bars that carry our rum in their area so they could find it outside of Hawaii. And otherwise, you know, of course, we're on Facebook and Instagram, you know, at Hello, Ron, and a lot of conversations and a lot of information sharing and pictures and whatnot, always available through social media, though, and our tasting room is right on the outskirts of Lee, who is where our main port of entry and airport is. And we're within a mile of the airport. So very conveniently located.
• 31:41
  Unknown: Perfect.
• 31:42
  Bob Gunter: Yeah. Well, thank you again so much for your time.
• 31:44
  Bob Gunter: I really appreciate it.
• 31:46
  Unknown: My pleasure. Thank you.
• 31:48
  Bob Gunter: Well, I just want to thank Bob again for his time.
• 31:50
  Bob Gunter: And thank you so much for your time, your valuable time for tuning in today. Again, I want to invite you to hit the subscribe button and I would love to know from you. What businesses would you like me to be interviewing on maybe in a future episode of Hawaii's Best?
• 32:03
  Bob Gunter: Let me know by shooting a review below. Or you can DM me on Instagram at Hawaii's Best. Well until next time, be well. Aloha.
• 32:18
  Hawaii's Best: Thanks for listening to Hawaii's Best podcast. Stay up to date on future episodes, be sure to hit the subscribe button and follow us on Instagram at Hawaii's Best