To meet an ever-increasing demand in one of the hottest categories in the liquor industry today, White Rock Distilleries of Lewiston, Maine, has jumped into the market for premium rum drinks with its Cabana Boy Flavored Rum Collection.

To help create the innovative packaging required to assure its successful introduction into all 50 states in the U.S. market, the company enlisted the services of Saxco International, Inc., Horsham, PA., world-wide packaging specialists for the wine and spirits industry.

Saxco would ultimately supply the 750mL acid-etched private mold flint glass rectangular bottles, front and back pressure-sensitive labels, as well as long-skirted aluminum closures (Stelcaps).

"The new Cabana Boy flavored rums are being featured in six distinct flavors and targeted to women 21 to 35 years of age," states Paul Coulombe, Chief Executive Officer of White Rock Distilleries. "This is a hot and ever-increasing market, and we wanted to be an active part of it."

The six featured flavors are citrus, pineapple-coconut, orange, vanilla-spice, wild cherry and raspberry. "Their popularity stems from their sweetness and their ease of being blended with several mixers," Coulombe notes.

"Our role was to help create a package which would be uniquely attractive, functional and appealing to a refined female audience," states Keith L. Sachs, Chairman of Saxco International.

To meet the design requirements established by Swardlick Marketing Group of Portland, Maine, exclusive designers for White Rock, Saxco sourced the 750mL private mold frosted glass bottles from Consumers Glass in Montreal, Canada. The flint acid-etched bottle was left with two clear rectangular areas, front and back, to accommodate the special die-cut pressure-sensitive labels.

The labels were made by Saxco vendor J.R. Cole of Charlotte, N.C. The front labels was manufactured with a circular die cut in the "O" in Cabana Boy which allows a consumer to visualize through it a beach scene depicting a cabana boy carrying a flavored-rum drink to an attractive female on the pressure-sensitive label affixed to the back of the bottle. The front label also depicts a special graphic of the individual fruit flavor. White Rock applied both sets of labels in-house.

To complete the overall package, Saxco sourced a long-skirted aluminum Stelcap from long-time supplier Pechiney in France. The blue-colored caps feature a different color band denoting each individual flavored rum.