Proximo: The Next Route To Growth: Roy Summers Interviewed.
6 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
With Cannes fast approaching, Proximo Spirits is bringing a broad portfolio and a clear ambition to global travel retail. And that’s to create more ways for travellers to discover spirits – from accessible RTDs to premium aged tequila and Irish whiskey.
TRunblocked.com Contributing Editor Colleen Morgan talks with Proximo Head of Global Travel Retail Roy Summers about the thinking behind the portfolio – and how innovation, experience and selective premiumisation are opening up new opportunities for brands and retailers alike.
Colleen Morgan: Proximo has quietly become one of the travel retail industry’s most interesting spirits portfolios. What story do you most want the industry to understand about where the business is heading?
Roy Summers (RS): For me, Cannes is about showing the breadth of opportunity we now have across the Proximo portfolio – and one of the most exciting new areas is ready-to-drink.
We see significant potential for RTDs in global travel retail because they respond to two very clear consumer needs: convenience and flavour. This year we’re introducing José Cuervo Sparkling Lime Margarita alongside The Kraken Black Spiced Ginger and Black Spiced Cola, ahead of global distribution in 2027. These accessible formats build on brands and serves consumers already recognise and trust, giving retail partners another way to recruit consumers into those franchises.
But importantly, RTDs complement rather than replace our premium and prestige strategy. Alongside them in Cannes we have 1800 Triple Cask Añejo, the Bushmills World Wood Series and the newly updated Black Bush bottle. So, the bigger story is a portfolio that can engage travellers at different occasions and price points, from accessible discovery through to premium and prestige.
CM: The Kraken has never been a brand that blends into the background, and this year’s Cannes presence looks set to be no exception. What’s behind the brand’s bold new direction?
RS: The Kraken has always had a very distinctive identity, so innovation needs to feel equally distinctive while remaining easy for consumers to understand. The move into RTDs gives us an interesting opportunity to do that.
The Kraken Black Spiced Ginger and Black Spiced Cola take two intuitive serves and put them into convenient formats. That lowers the barriers to discovery: there’s no need to understand how to mix or serve the drink – you can simply open it and enjoy it.
That accessibility is particularly relevant when we think about younger legal-age consumers. They tend to be selective, curious and experience-led, so we need different entry points into spirits rather than assuming everyone starts with a traditional bottle purchase. RTDs can be one of those entry points, while still delivering the distinctive flavour and brand experience consumers expect from The Kraken.
CM: Disruption is easy the first time. Staying disruptive is much harder. How do you stop Kraken becoming predictable?
RS: The Kraken has always had a very distinctive world, but we need to keep finding unexpected ways for consumers to enter it. That’s really the thinking behind our new product launches, which we’re introducing in Cannes and will take forward into our activations in 2027.
In Cannes, we’re turning the yacht into an immersive Kraken experience. You’ll see the Kraken physically taking over the space, with tentacles breaking through the boat and dedicated environments across the decks. But we’re also going much deeper into interaction. Multi-sensory experiences let people engage with the Kraken world and its range of serves through sampling, gamification and shareable moments.
That’s particularly important as we introduce the new RTDs. They give us a more accessible way to recruit consumers who may be discovering The Kraken – or even rum – for the first time.
CM: One theme running across your portfolio is taking travellers from accessible propositions through to prestige expressions. Is that becoming increasingly important as consumer spending becomes more selective?
RS: Absolutely. We talk a lot internally about selective premiumisation. Travellers haven’t stopped trading up, but they are becoming much more deliberate about when and why they do it.
That makes a clear premium ladder increasingly important: accessible propositions encourage discovery and trial, while other products give consumers a reason to move further into a category. In Bushmills, for example, the World Wood Series takes travellers through five age-statement single malts with different wood finishes, right through to the 18- and 21-Year-Old expressions.
Within tequila, we can recruit consumers through familiar flavours and occasions before introducing them to something like 1800 Triple Cask Añejo.
Consumers are increasingly building broader spirits repertoires, so I think our role is to make that exploration intuitive rather than assume everyone enters a category at the same point.
CM: Travel retail has spent years talking about premiumisation, yet consumers are becoming more selective. Is the industry entering a new phase where experience, education and storytelling matter as much as price?
RS: I think we already are. Simply putting a premium product on a shelf with a premium price is no longer enough. Travellers want to understand what makes it special – whether that is provenance, craftsmanship, an age statement, a distinctive maturation process or genuine travel retail exclusivity.
Storytelling and education have therefore become fundamental to premiumisation. The higher the price point, the more important it is that we communicate the value of the liquid quickly and clearly.
Travel retail is particularly well suited to that because we can combine sampling, trained ambassadors, digital storytelling and immersive installations. The objective isn’t retail theatre for its own sake; it’s to make sometimes quite complex stories accessible and memorable and ultimately give travellers confidence in what they are buying.
CM: Bushmills and 1800 remain central to your growth ambitions. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for premium Irish whiskey and aged tequila in travel retail today?
RS: Both categories benefit from travellers becoming more exploratory.
Irish whiskey still has significant headroom in travel retail, particularly in markets such as India and across Asia Pacific, where consumers are increasingly looking beyond established whisky conventions. Bushmills gives us a strong proposition because we can combine more than 400 years of heritage with age statements, distinctive wood finishes and products created specifically for the channel. The World Wood Series is a great example of how we can encourage that exploration.
Aged tequila is undergoing a similarly interesting shift. It is increasingly entering the consideration set of premium whisky consumers as people become more interested in agave provenance, maturation and sipping occasions. 1800 Triple Cask Añejo – matured in French oak, American oak and Cabernet Sauvignon wine casks – gives whisky drinkers a familiar language through which to understand aged tequila while still offering something genuinely different.
The opportunity isn’t necessarily about one category replacing another. It is about broadening the premium spirits repertoire.
CM: Your activations have become increasingly immersive. Beyond creating eye-catching retail theatre, what actually converts curiosity into purchase?
RS: The key is what happens after you have stopped the traveller.
Our 1800 Triple Cask activation at JFK is a good example. The visual concept was inspired by the three casks used to mature the tequila, creating the initial interruption. Brand ambassadors and guided sampling then helped consumers understand what each cask contributed and, crucially, taste the resulting liquid.
That combination of exclusivity, education and trial is incredibly powerful. The activation exceeded our expectations and was extended beyond its original schedule, giving us a useful blueprint for the wider rollout.
Ultimately, retail theatre has to make the product easier to understand. If a traveller can quickly see why something is different, understand why it commands its price and experience the liquid for themselves, you have a much stronger chance of turning curiosity into purchase.
CM: Looking beyond Cannes, what would success look like for Proximo in global travel retail over the next 12 months? What do you want the industry to be saying about the business this time next year?
RS: Success would be seeing Proximo recognised as a partner that is bringing genuine new opportunities into the channel rather than simply adding more products to the shelf.
That means building the RTD opportunity with José Cuervo and The Kraken as we move towards global distribution in 2027, continuing to grow 1800 Triple Cask Añejo as a distinctive travel retail-exclusive proposition, and driving further recruitment into premium Irish whiskey through Bushmills and the World Wood Series.
But I’d also like people to recognise the thinking that connects those different parts of the portfolio. Consumers are becoming more selective and more exploratory at the same time. We therefore need the right product, at the right price point, with the right story for each traveller and location.
If, this time next year, retailers see Proximo as a business that understands those changing behaviours and is helping them recruit new consumers, drive discovery and create incremental value across the spirits category, I think we’ll have achieved something meaningful.
