In the seven years since St. Thomas family-owned jewelry specialists Cardow Inc. expanded into wines and spirits, it has opened four stores in multiple locations on the island, and Cardow’s distribution company has been growing its business throughout the USVI.
Cardow COO Paul de Lyrot tells TMI that moving into the wines and spirits business has been both interesting and rewarding as the company tried something outside its normal comfort zone. The Cardow family, which is now in its third generation of operations, has created some of the most famous jewelry stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the past 70 years.
For one, de Lyrot says that they learned what the wines and spirits consumer was looking for.
“We had to adjust our selection in our stores as our travelers are more interested in what they cannot find in the U.S. than the savings they make on what they normally purchase in the U.S. For that reason, the rum segment is big and still growing,” says de Lyrot, adding that the ‘exotic fruit’ based-products have been doing well in-store, and the tequila and mezcal category has been gaining momentum.
Cardow’s distribution company has been improving the selection available in St. Thomas, says de Lyrot. Cardow launched a wholesale and distribution division in September 2021 which is already serving more than 100 on-premise accounts throughout St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix.
“For our distribution company the wines have taken center stage as there was a need of better quality and service on island. We see more and more spirits joining our portfolio as we offer a unique opportunity: staging the wines and spirits in the Travel Retail stores and putting them in distribution in the premium on-premise accounts in the market.”
While Cardow has achieved more and more success with its wines and spirits business, de Lyrot says that there are clear differences between the wines and spirits and jewelry categories.
“Jewelry is about selling a unique item to a consumer for a life-long reward. Wine and spirits is about selling pleasure for immediate satisfaction. Jewelry is gaged first by tangible quality elements like weight/size/color/purity… all quantifiable elements. Wines are not at all. Spirits are a bit more but both are mainly valued by the notoriety of the brand/ the maker.”
Cardow now operates four different stores on the island.
Under the name Cardow Wine & Spirits, the company operates an 859-square foot Departure Store, which includes a premium bar, and a 445-square foot Arrivals store.
The Departure Store at the St. Thomas’ Cyril E. King Airport concentrates on rums, souvenir items, and super premium spirits.
The Arrivals Store at the airports concentrates on mainstream brands as the consumers are buying to drink them while they will stay in the USVI.
Cardow also operates one store at the Crown Bay Cruise Port, and one on Main Street.
Crown Bay Cruise Port serves Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise Lines and Holland American Cruise Line, and also acts as a port of call to the Sea Dream Yacht Club, which caters to private vessels.
“The cruise store started as a general travel retail assortment and moved to the same selection as the airport departure store,” says de Lyrot. “The store on Main Street is selling exclusively our rums as the customers are brought in by the rum tour that we have developed for the cruise excursions.”
Extra Virgin by Cardow
The Cardow family is now producing its own premium rum: Extra Virgin by Cardow, which has become a best-seller and is even outselling the globally-known spirits brands, says de Lyrot.
The rums have been such a success for Cardow that the company is now producing six different variants. Cardow is offering four different premium rums in its Extra Virgin by Cardow line: Old Rum, Navy Rum, Extra Virgin Coconut and Extra Virgin Guava. Extra Virgin by Cardow is a rum that is made from the first pressing of the sugar cane, not the molasses.
Cardow also offers entry level rums Magens Bay Dark Rum and Magens Bay Light Rum that retails for under $10 each.
“In the Departure store the main brands normally sold in travel retail are not as big as we anticipated they would be. The volume of sales of our local rums is amazing and growing. The Extra Virgin line of rum is outselling any other spirits or wine including Pure White! And with far better margins. The late introduction of Magens Bay rum (‘top ten most beautiful bay in the world’) at a more affordable level and made with premium local rum immediately reached all types of travelers and reveals an enormous sales potential,” de Lyrot tells TMI.
The name Extra Virgin instantly connects with the consumer, he says.
“The Extra Virgin name has a spontaneous notoriety thanks to the fact that any customer understands it is a better product. As our rum is made from the first pressing of the sugar cane, it enhances the quality level perceived and triggers a clear understanding of the name ‘Extra Virgin.’ The bottle design is reminiscent of the navy style decanters used on ships to ‘fight’ the boat’s rolling.”
De Lyrot says that while Cardow has already accomplished a lot in the years since opening its wines and spirits business, it has more ambitious goals in the years ahead.
“The main goal is to become a major player on the island as a distributor of premium wines and spirits. We are actively looking for partnership opportunities with other islands. We would be able to scale our purchases from the U.S. and from Europe with other travel retail operators and islands distributors,” he says.
“The quality of our portfolio and quality of our service, combined with the exclusive position of our stores, makes a perfect landing strip for all brands interested by visibility and market introduction in an island which can be construed as a market test for the U.S. given the 95% American tourist population we have.”
