After several years under the ownership of Proximo Spirits, Brooklyn-born Owney’s Rum has returned to its founder.
Bridget Firtle, who also helms Rockaway Soda, will now bring the craft rum brand she launched in 2012 back to its “independent roots.” The transaction details were not disclosed.
A former Wall Street hedge fund investor, Firtle fled her finance career to build a Williamsburg-based craft distillery with the vision of blazing a path for an American rum resurgence during the height of the craft spirit movement. From her corporate desk, Firtle analyzed equities in global alcoholic beverages, leading her to hatch a plan for a spirits company that a major player would pounce on amid the eventual wave of craft acquisitions – and it worked.
But as many smaller companies have found, merging craft and corporate isn’t always the dream scenario.
“Most founders dream of exits, I dreamt of buyback,” said Firtle. “This buyback is about protecting the spirit – literally and culturally – of what made Owney’s impossible to ignore in the first place.”
Owney’s built a cult following for a homegrown rum that caught the attention of Proximo Spirits, the U.S. import arm of Jose Cuervo’s parent company, whose own groundbreaking New York distillery was a few years in the making. In 2017, Firtle inked a deal to integrate Owney’s into Proximo’s portfolio, and remain involved for three years as the brand scaled.
After exiting, Firtle founded Rockaway Soda, a better-for-you soda brand inspired by her New York roots. But there was “unfinished business” with Owney’s, she said, inspiring her to ask Proximo to sell the brand back.
“There were a lot of things I wanted to execute within Proximo that just couldn’t be done given the nature of a huge company,” she said.
Firtle declined to comment on Proximo’s strategy for her brand or her reasons for selling. Most global spirit companies have offloaded non-core brands in recent years as spirits sales have declined. In addition to its major agave spirit brands, Proximo’s portfolio includes New York’s Great Jones Whiskey, Kraken Spiced Rum, American single malt leader Stranahan’s, Proper No. 12, and more recognizable spirit brands.
Despite boasting distribution sway, a robust salesforce and “tremendous resources,” the slow-moving pace of a larger company and the fight for attention within a deep portfolio can be challenging for smaller brands, said Firtle.
“I think there’s just an inherent disconnect between small brands within larger spirits houses,” she said.
Plans to relaunch Owney’s are still in development, but the portfolio will shed a Caribbean blend launched under Proximo and return to its Original and Overproof white rums as flagships. For now, the company has plenty of rum to launch with for its brand refresh in 2026, with more to come on the brand’s future distilling location.
With Owney’s roots in bars and restaurants, Firtle is excited to be back in the on-premise and eyeing possible synergies with Rockaway Soda.
“We don’t do much on-premise business right now with Rockaway Soda, and Owney’s Rum was pretty much a fully on-premise brand,” she said. “I think that can open up the door for a lot of collaborations or introductions.”