Kōloa Rum names Robert Ramer COO, ending Bob Gunter’s 18-year tenure

Kōloa Rum put a familiar Kauai name in charge of its next phase Friday, naming Robert Ramer chief operating officer as Bob Gunter ended an 18-year run guiding the company’s rise from island startup to national rum brand.

The move matters beyond a personnel shuffle. Kōloa Rum said Ramer will oversee day-to-day operations and help steer continued growth and expansion at a company that now sells in 38 states and select international markets. For a distillery that built its identity around Kauai, the change points to how much bigger the business has become, and how much more visible its local footprint may become if expansion plans move ahead.

Gunter’s tenure shaped that growth. He joined Kōloa Rum in 2008 as chief operating officer and was promoted to president and chief executive in May 2010, helping transform the company into one of Hawaii’s better-known beverage brands. Kōloa Rum said he strengthened sustainable practices, pushed locally sourced ingredients and kept island heritage at the center of the company’s identity. His work also extended into the broader business community through service with the Hawaii Employers Council, the Kauai Chamber of Commerce, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association’s Industry Access Advisory Council and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States’ state government relations committee.

Ramer’s appointment suggests continuity more than a reset. He joined Kōloa Rum in 2011 as an operations intern, left to pursue professional baseball, then returned in 2019 to work in business development. He most recently served as chief commercial officer and spent the past year and a half defining and executing the company’s commercial strategy across domestic and international markets.

That commercial push has already carried the Kauai label well beyond the island. Kōloa Rum says it is the first licensed distillery on Kauai since the end of Prohibition, and it was established in 2009, making its first batch that year in an old jam and jelly factory just outside Līhue. Today, principal production is in Kalaheo, with a tasting room and company store at Kilohana Plantation near Līhue. The company says its rum is made with Hawaiian cane sugar, Mount Waialeale rainwater and a vintage 1,210-gallon steam-powered copper pot still.

The transition comes as Kōloa Rum has been laying groundwork for a larger home base in Kōloa. In 2023, the company outlined a three-phase move to an 18.5-acre site across from Anne Knudsen Park that would include a 45,000-square-foot distillery and warehouse, a 3,000-square-foot administrative building, a 4,500-square-foot tasting room and company store and a 4,500-square-foot café. Earlier projections said the project would quadruple production capacity. The company’s national profile has also grown through partnerships, including its role as the official ultra-premium rum of the Las Vegas Raiders since 2021 and an official partnership with Purdue University Athletics announced in March 2023.