Two Wolverhampton friends turned business partners launch 'Cool Rummings' rum punch
Two childhood friends have launched a drinks business together celebrating their Caribbean heritage.
Cheyenne Dunkley and Conor 'CJ' Johns, both 30 years old, launched the alcoholic punch beverage 'Cool Rummings', which they say is a celebratory tribute to the Caribbean, and more specifically to the island paradise of Jamaica.
The two men from Wolverhampton met in school and have remained close friends ever since, always supporting one another.
Cheyenne, who is a professional footballer for Shrewsbury Town, and his business partner CJ said that they had an idea of a drink, planned it all out on how they wanted to launch the beverage and got to work in producing it - now they are working on marketing it in the city that they are from, and then plan to take it nationwide.
Speaking about the process on where the idea came from and how they plan to make the drink a household name across the country, CJ said: "Essentially we are two friends that met in Year Seven at Heath Park school, always kept in contact and always supported one another, so we decided to work on the idea of launching our own drink.
"There is currently a gap in the market for a rum punch drink and so we want to fill that gap. It's a Caribbean drink which comes from our background.
"Our grandparents were born in Jamaica, and it's an old school recipe, and so we took that idea from our roots and made it into a premium rum punch which is made with natural flavours and ingredients.
"It has been a work in progress since coming up with the idea, and we faced barriers in getting a manufacturer, but after getting our drinks license, we launched in December 2022 and we're now selling in a range of shops across Wolverhampton.
"It has been a successful launch, and we have had a lot of people getting behind it.
"We have received a lot of support from friends and family, but most importantly, the feedback we are getting is that people have been getting in contact to tell us that they love the drinks.
"The plan is to step-by-step take it outside our city, and we have already began that process in East Midlands around the Nottingham area, and hopefully we will continue to grow.
"The dream is to make this a household name in the drinks industry."
The two business partners have been running regular competitions on the product's social media page as they said that they will always strive to give back to the community. When they meet with store owners, they prefer to meet personally and provide the personal touch in the business rather than sending a sales representative - and they plan to keep it up.
The name of the drink Cool Rummings is a play on the name of the hit 90s film Cool Runnings, and of course rum.
There are currently two flavours available, Original and Purple Rain. The Original flavour is based on summer fruits, bursting with tropical flavours with a Caribbean white rum, whilst the Purple Rain flavour is a blend of tropical summer fruits with a grape base.
They plan to bring out more flavours in the future, and soon customers will be able to buy directly from their website at coolrummings.co.uk.
At the moment, the bottles can be purchased from the following stockists:
Drinks For Less, 739 Cannock Road, Wolverhampton.
Wolves Wines, 283 Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton.
Strictly Liquor, 400 Penn Road, Wolverhampton
Wood End Wines, 252 Wood End Road, Wolverhampton
The Star Pub, Graiseley Lane, Wednesfield
The Pheasant Pub, Wood End Road, Wednesfield
To celebrate the launch of the product and with Valentine's Day right around the corner, the company is running a competition on Instagram, giving two lucky couples a bouquet box of the Cool Rummings drink, rum sweets, a personalised letter from the two owners, and a £100 voucher which can be used at either the Jamaya Caribbean Restaurant, or the Ego Mediterranean Restaurant - the winner can choose their preferred location.
Anyone wishing to enter the competition can visit the Cool Rummings Instagram.
Tag three people in the pinned post for the competition, follow the page and share the post to a story.
Speaking about the giveaway, CJ added: "We like to run competitions regularly and will always continue to do so with bigger prizes as we continue to grow.
"We love the idea of giving back to the community, and it's nice to offer the chance to give something back and people can enter for free.
"We are currently a small team that will hopefully grow, but having that personal touch that we provide will always remain."
