Cyril Isautier, CEO of Isautier Boissons, discusses the future of the family-owned group and its rums. Between the success of its flavoured rums, the development of premium rums, the construction of a new distillery dedicated to agricultural rum, and the tripling of its ageing capacity, Isautier is keeping busy and continuing to innovate. This is essential for a company that wants to continue to flourish from generation to generation.
You have just celebrated the 180th anniversary of Maison Isautier, notably with a (very successful) special cuvée. What does this venerable age represent for you?
I don’t want these 180 years to be seen as an achievement. Rather, I want them to be seen as a milestone. The principle of a family business is not to make a splash, reach its peak and then collapse, but to continue to exist and grow. Today, we are in the seventh generation of Isautier (7.0), and we must now work on the eighth (8.0), so that the ninth (9.0) becomes possible, and so on.
What is the situation as we celebrate our 180th anniversary?
We have been in a period of transition for some time now, and this will continue for a few more years. We need to reinvent our model.
Why?
The Isautier Group, which includes the Beverages division, is a family-owned SME based in France’s overseas departments and regions. However, in today’s uncertain and rapidly changing world, which is largely dominated by large corporations, it is difficult for an SME to survive. It is too small and dependent on a single product and market.
What obstacles do you face?
Today, it’s impossible to compete with the big companies. We had the genius—I think we can use that word, especially since I wasn’t the one who came up with the idea—to invent bottled flavoured rums 15 years ago. That was 55 years ago in Réunion, but in mainland France, it was 15 years ago. We democratised a tradition that was 100% Réunionese and created a trend and a category of spirits. On the scale of an SME, that’s unique. It has enabled us, over the last 15 years, to be commercially successful and to have a little money put aside. But we waited too long to invest, to do the work of building our brand.
What do you mean?
Fifteen years ago, we arrived from our island and knew nothing about the world of spirits. We were naive, but we still managed to pull off an incredible coup. Today, we realise that there’s a good reason why all the big groups spend 10 years promoting a brand in wine cellars and the hotel and catering industry before introducing it into supermarkets. It’s because they know that one day, if their brand is successful, it will be copied. And that its continued success will then depend on its reputation, which takes years to build up.
Is that what happened to you with the arrangés?
Exactly, that’s what’s happening to us now. In 2010, we invented the category in France, and we were alone, or almost alone, for about 10 years. They let us scrape by because the market was too small and the big groups didn’t think it was worth getting involved. But when the market started to reach a respectable size, they did what big companies do. And I don’t blame them, I would have done the same in their place. They arrived with their considerable resources and launched their own arrangés at 30% to 50% cheaper. And they took over the market. They don’t make the same products at all. It’s not the same story. There’s not the same love at all. But from the end consumer’s point of view, it’s the same category.
So how can we continue to build the Isautier brand?
It’s the result of our work over the last few years on our range of aged rums, our range of arrangés, reserved for cellars and the hotel and catering industry (La Fresque de la Réunion, editor’s note), the 180-year-old bottle we presented at Whisky Live… It’s fundamental work, long-term work, because building a brand takes 10 years.
So we need to keep talking about the brand, launching special editions, explaining who we are, explaining our history, explaining how we’re different… in order to make people want to get to know us better and discover Réunion.
If we don’t do this work, customers aren’t going to do it just by looking at our bottles! It also means increasing our presence in wine shops and being much more active on social media.
But growing bigger requires investment. How are you going to do that?
As we have worked hard for 15 years, we have some resources and four years ago we started to reinvest heavily in… everything! We redesigned all our packaging, recruited extensively at all levels, created a range of liqueurs for the hotel and catering industry, tripled the capacity of our distillery, we are completely restoring our main distillery, we have just completely refurbished our museum, we are building a new cellar, and we have built a new agricultural distillery in Bérive, the birthplace of the historic family home…
So, all of this has been done or is being done with the money we have earned over the last 15 years. But we must continue to create value. That’s why we have put a plan in place to develop Isautier’s Beverage Division and the Group more broadly. The modernisation of the company is based on three pillars: ambition, diversity and responsibility. And behind each of these words are real indicators of success. These are not just words for PR purposes, they are words intended to create a dynamic within the company.
How will you go about winning and regaining market share in the rum and flavoured rum market?
Our strategy combines expertise and awareness. Isautier will continue to promote its expertise. The range will be developed to meet all market needs, both in terms of price positioning and product offering. And we will launch a new brand with the Bérive distillery project. At the same time, Isautier must strengthen its marketing.
We need to make our products more available and visible to consumers across all distribution channels. In Réunion, we are strengthening our sales teams. In mainland France, 2025 marks a change of distributor with Grands Chais de France.
The Bérive distillery is dedicated exclusively to the production of agricultural rum, is that correct?
Bérive produces organic, single-estate agricultural rums using our own mill, sugar cane, yeast and stills, here on our family land, next to our family home. But we are also continuing to develop our historic distillery, particularly our cellars.
At the moment, our cellar, which we call paradise, only has a capacity of 500 barrels. There is a problem of scale. We need to grow to become stronger. That’s why we are building a new cellar which, when completed, will be able to accommodate three times as many barrels.
How can we grow when the sugar cane industry is not doing very well in Réunion? What can we do?
As long as the sugar factories are still operating, there is more than enough to supply the traditional rum market in Réunion. Because today, 80% of Réunion rum is not traditional rum, it is light rum, produced by Rivière du Mât and Savanna, which is sold in bulk for export. But it is not highly valued.
So, if one day they have to make a decision because there is no longer enough molasses, they will certainly produce the rum with the highest added value: traditional rum from Réunion. At least, that’s what I imagine, bu
Would you switch entirely to agricultural rum in this scenario?
For agricultural rum, yes. One of Bérive’s goals is to reclaim the expertise of agricultural rum, particularly the crushing process, which we haven’t done in-house for 40 years now. But we much prefer to be able to make traditional sugar cane rum AND agricultural rum! We love both.
What new developments can we expect from Isautier in the coming year?
When it comes to white and aged rums, Marie Ferrand still has lots of ideas and lots of things she wants to do. Blends of molasses rums and agricultural rums, wonders waiting to be discovered in the cellars. We want to continue to promote our range of exceptional aged rums: Louis, Charles, Apollonie and Antoinette. As for white rums, we are still working on the Agent Double range, including Fusion, which revolutionised the market with its co-fermentation of cane juice and molasses. We have put them to age and they will soon reach 3 years. Marie will decide when to release them.
And on the flavoured rum side, Louise Bouilloux still has the whole Réunion terroir to showcase. But above all, we are going to promote a new way of consuming flavoured rums. In ready-to-drink cocktails, packaged in cans. The range is called Fizz and showcases our traditional rum combined with tropical fruits from Réunion (Victoria pineapple, passion fruit, lychee and Tangor orange) and sparkling water. It’s being launched in Réunion these days and the reception has been incredible.
You’re going to be copied again!
I’m well aware of that, but as they say, ‘first to market, last to copy’. And in reality, canning deliciously sparkling, pasteurised cocktails is a complicated technological leap to achieve, so not everyone will be able to copy us. In any case, we’re very excited, the products are amazing!