# St Johns ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1946 | | Origin | U.S. Virgin Islands | | Headquarters | St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (with a sales and marketing office in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA) | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/ | St Johns is a men's fragrance and grooming company based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, best known for its Bay Rum cologne and aftershave and for bottles wrapped by hand in woven palm fronds. The company traces its start to 1946, when Capt. John Webb, a U.S. Navy officer stationed on St Thomas, conceived of a men's aftershave built on the islands' traditional bay rum [5]. Trading as St Johns Fragrance Co., it remains a small, privately owned business with its roots on St Thomas and a sales and marketing office in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Over eight decades the brand has passed through a consumer-goods conglomerate, a retailer who moved his family to the islands, and a family office that bought it to keep it alive. It has also survived three major hurricanes that destroyed its factory. The company is active: in 2026 it marked its 80th anniversary with a new fragrance, Three Saints [11]. ## Origin & founders Bay rum predates the brand by roughly a century. It is a traditional cologne and aftershave made from rum and the leaves of the West Indian bay tree, *Pimenta racemosa*, and it was first produced on St Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies, around 1840. The company's own history credits the Danish chemist Albert Heinrich Riise with the invention in 1838, and describes how bay rum became an important Virgin Islands export in the early 20th century, including a period during U.S. Prohibition when manufacturers added aspirin so it could still be shipped as a remedy. John Webb, born in Minneapolis, was stationed at the submarine base at Charlotte Amalie during the Second World War. According to the company, he already understood how much bay rum meant to the islands and set out to revive the industry after the war. In a 2026 interview, CEO Rhys Moore added a more personal motive: Webb wanted a reason to stay in the Caribbean rather than return to the cold of Minnesota. Webb blended bay rum with local spices and herbs into what became the brand's original Bay Rum cologne. He also designed the packaging that still defines the brand. Inspired by the palm-frond baskets that local fishermen used, he had each bottle covered in a hand-woven palm sheath, later registered as the FishPot Weave. The company says the network of island weavers grew to more than 200 families, producing tens of thousands of bottles a year. ### Founding date The brand's own pages give two dates. Its history timeline places Webb's start of production of St Johns Bay Rum under 1947 [2]. The CEO interview reposted on the company blog, the brand's 2026 anniversary material and a trade report in MR Magazine all give 1946 as the founding year [11]. The two dates can be read together: 1946 as the year Webb conceived the product, 1947 as the year production began. The brand's earlier milestones follow the later date, with a 60th-anniversary bottle in 2007 and a 70th-anniversary bottle in 2017, while its 80th anniversary was celebrated in 2026. A separate point of confusion comes from Wikipedia. Its general article on bay rum says that A. H. Riise began producing the original St Thomas bay rum in 1883 and that "the company" continues to make men's products in the Virgin Islands under the St Johns Bay Rum brand [9]. The brand itself does not describe such a link. It treats Riise as part of the pre-history of bay rum and Webb as the founder of St Johns, and the Wikipedia sentence cites the brand's website as its source. ## History & milestones Webb's next step was the U.S. mainland. In 1957 he hired a Madison Avenue advertising agency in New York to represent the brand, and St Johns Bay Rum was soon sold at Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue. Between 1957 and 1963 the company ran a series of advertisements in The New Yorker. The brand credits this post-war interest in men's grooming, together with the woven bottle and the advertising, for national growth in the 1960s. Advertising remained part of the brand's character. The company has written with some amusement about its 1970s campaigns, including one for its West Indian Lime Cologne that played on the television series Charlie's Angels and implied the scent would help a man win over women. The islands themselves proved the greatest threat to the business. In 1995 Hurricane Marilyn destroyed the St Johns factory and most of the Tyre palms whose fronds were used for the bottles. The company says employees salvaged what they could and resumed shipping within a few weeks. In 2007 St Johns opened its first online store, which the brand says extended its customer base to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and beyond. A limited-edition FishPot Weave bottle marked its 60th anniversary the same year. The worst blow came in 2017. Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Virgin Islands five days apart. By the CEO's account, the company had already begun moving its warehouse and distribution to the mainland. The first storm tore part of the roof off the building at Havensight on St Thomas, and the second flooded it, leaving what he called a total loss. The palms used for weaving were stripped as well. The company responded with a limited "Hurricane Series": fragrance mixed on the mainland, bottled with an artist's digitally printed version of the weave, with part of the proceeds donated to Americares and island relief efforts. Moore has said it took almost a year for the fronds to grow back and for production with the island weavers to stabilise. By 2019 the company had set up its sales and marketing office in Ridgefield, Connecticut, while keeping what it calls an important presence in the islands. During the Covid-19 pandemic it updated its branding, labels and packaging, giving each fragrance its own box, and began developing newer scents. ## Ownership St Johns has changed hands several times. The consumer-products company Warner-Lambert acquired it in 1963 [2]. In 1978 Jerry Woodhouse, a retailer from Columbus, Ohio, bought the brand from Warner-Lambert and moved his family to the Virgin Islands. During his ownership, the company says, St Johns entered department stores including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus and Brooks Brothers. The more recent ownership history is told inconsistently across the brand's own pages. The timeline states that a group of private investors acquired St Johns in June 2015 and turned it into a small-batch fragrance factory [2]. The long-form company history says the Welles brothers, who knew the brand as a favourite of their father's, bought it from Woodhouse in 2016 [3], while the timeline lists the Welles family as owners under 2017. The timeline describes the family as four American brothers. Moore, speaking in 2026, described three brothers whose family office bought the business after Woodhouse, as he grew older, could no longer keep pace with changes in men's grooming [10]. Moore, who had previously worked at Saks Fifth Avenue and run business units for Champion and Swiss Army brands, joined shortly afterwards as CEO. No corporate parent is involved. The company describes itself as privately owned and lists "Independent" among its core values. ## Philosophy & positioning St Johns presents itself as a heritage brand built on continuity. Its long-standing tagline is "Unapologetically Masculine," and it sums up its values in four words: authentic, independent, resilient and timeless. The company says its classic fragrances keep their original formulas, and it frames the hand-woven bottle as a tradition it does not intend to change. In its own words, it is "best to not tamper with perfection." That positioning has found an audience in traditional American menswear circles. Ivy Style, a publication on classic American dress, interviewed the CEO for the 80th anniversary and placed the brand in "heritage brand territory" [10]. Moore said in the same interview that the brand was being discovered by a younger customer drawn to the classic scents, the woven bottle and the story behind them. ## Products & innovation The core of the range is Bay Rum, sold as cologne and aftershave. According to the company's history, Webb blended Jamaican rum with bay leaf oil from the Virgin Islands, then added basil, thyme, clove and cinnamon, with notes of orange, eucalyptus and sandalwood. The perfume critic Luca Turin read the formula differently. Writing in 2025, he concluded that, as far as he could tell from the brand's website, its Bay Rum contains no ingredient other than the oil of the West Indian bay tree [12]. Alongside Bay Rum, the line includes West Indian Lime, No. 77 and Vetiver, followed by the newer Madras and Caneel, which Moore describes as more contemporary fragrances developed after the pandemic. The range extends to bar soaps, aluminium-free deodorant, soy candles and travel and gift sets, and the company has released a footwear collaboration with Sebago. Three Saints, the 80th-anniversary fragrance, is named after the three main U.S. Virgin Islands: St Thomas, St John and St Croix. Moore has described it as a "surf, sun and sand" scent with notes of calone, absinthe, basil, lavender and tonka, positioned at the opposite end of the range from Bay Rum. St Johns also makes one women's fragrance, Coral. According to Moore, the company had three or four women's scents sold only in the Caribbean before the 2017 hurricanes and stopped blending them afterwards to focus on the men's line. Customer requests brought Coral back, and the company has since produced it in larger runs. The FishPot Weave remains the brand's distinguishing feature. Each bottle is still covered by hand by island weavers using palm fronds, so no two are exactly alike, according to the company. ## Recognition Luca Turin reviewed St Johns Bay Rum on his Substack in June 2025. He found that it smells mostly of cloves, with a citrus-pine freshness and nothing medicinal about it, and called it "perhaps the best minimalist alternative to an Eau de Cologne" he had come across [12]. The company also says its woven bottle has appeared on screen, naming the television series M*A*S*H and Archer and films including Lenny, Scent of a Woman and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. The brand describes its fragrances as award-winning but does not name a specific award. The medals listed on its timeline, including the Centennial Medal of 1876, belong to Riise's 19th-century bay rum rather than to St Johns. ## Current status St Johns is active. In January 2026 MR Magazine reported the launch of Three Saints for the brand's 80th anniversary, noting that the St Johns range of colognes, soaps and grooming products is carried by men's specialty stores and luxury resorts. In an April 2026 interview, Moore said the brand could be found in more than 400 specialty stores on the U.S. mainland and in resorts in the Caribbean [10]. The company also sells directly online and ships internationally. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1946 | Capt. John Webb conceives a men's aftershave from local bay rum on St Thomas and founds the St Johns business in the US Virgin Islands (brand's 2026 interview; brand's own timeline dates the start of production to 1947). | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/blogs/news/ivy-style-feature-interview-with-rhys-moore-of-st-johns | | 1947 | Webb begins producing St Johns Bay Rum and designs the hand-woven palm-frond FishPot Weave bottles; island weaver network grows to more than 200 families. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1957 | Webb hires a Madison Avenue agency to represent the brand in the US; sold at Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue; ads in The New Yorker 1957-1963. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1963 | Warner-Lambert acquires St Johns Bay Rum. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1963 | Acquired by Warner-Lambert | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1978 | Columbus, Ohio retailer Jerry Woodhouse buys the brand from Warner-Lambert and moves his family to the Virgin Islands. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1978 | Bought from Warner-Lambert by Columbus, Ohio retailer Jerry Woodhouse | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 1995 | Hurricane Marilyn destroys the St Johns factory and most of the Tyre palms used for the bottles; shipping resumes within weeks. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 2007 | Launch of first e-commerce store, stjohnsbayrum.com; limited-edition 60th-anniversary FishPot Weave bottle. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 2015 | Brand acquired by a group of private investors (June 2015) per the brand timeline. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 2015 | Acquired by a group of private investors (brand timeline) | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | | 2016 | The Welles brothers purchase the company from Jerry Woodhouse (brand's long-form history; brand timeline places Welles ownership under 2017). | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story | | 2016 | Purchased from Mr. Woodhouse by the Welles brothers (family office); brand timeline lists the Welles family as owners under 2017 | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story | | 2017 | Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastate the factory; limited 'Hurricane Series' with digitally printed weave bottles, part of proceeds donated to Americares and island relief; 70th-anniversary limited bottle. | https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Bay Rum (original cologne and aftershave)** — From the original St Johns Bay Rum® to the appealing No. 77, St Johns Fragrance Company offers products that unite a rich history, unparalleled luxury and modern sensibility . — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story - **No. 77** — From the original St Johns Bay Rum® to the appealing No. 77 — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story - **West Indian Lime Cologne** — A nice nod to Charlie’s Angels with the subtext that our West Indian Lime Cologne will break down a woman’s resistance to you. — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story - **Three Saints (80th anniversary fragrance, 2026)** — Three Saints was created to celebrate 80 years of St Johns fragrance, a tribute to island heritage and enduring American style. — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/collections/three-saints-our-80th-anniversary-scent - **Coral (women's fragrance)** — Rediscover Coral, the distinctive St. Johns fragrance for women inspired by the warmth, beauty, and effortless sophistication of island living. — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} bay leaf oil · Jamaican rum · clove · cinnamon · eucalyptus · orange · basil · thyme Source: https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - FishPot Weave® (registered hand-woven palm-frond bottle covering) — https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Ivy Style** (2026) — Interview by editor Matthew Longcore with CEO Rhys Moore on the brand's 80th anniversary, ownership history, hurricane recovery, Three Saints, Coral and retail distribution (over 400 specialty stores). — https://www.ivy-style.com/interview-with-rhys-moore-of-st-johns.html - **MR Magazine** (2026) — Trade news item 'St Johns Marks 80 Years With a New Fragrance Rooted in Island Heritage' on the Three Saints launch; notes the assortment is carried by men's specialty stores and luxury resorts. — https://mr-mag.com/st-johns-marks-80-years-with-a-new-fragrance-rooted-in-island-heritage/ - **Luca Turin (Substack)** (2025) — Perfume critic Luca Turin reviews St Johns Bay Rum: smells mostly of cloves with a citrus-pine freshness, calls it perhaps the best minimalist alternative to an Eau de Cologne he has come across. — https://lucaturin.substack.com/p/st-johns-bay-rum ## Sources 2. (T1) https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/history-st-johns-bay-rum 3. (T2) https://stjohnsbayrum.com/pages/st-johns-fragrance-company-full-story 5. (T2) https://stjohnsbayrum.com/blogs/news/ivy-style-feature-interview-with-rhys-moore-of-st-johns 9. (T3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_rum 10. (T3) https://www.ivy-style.com/interview-with-rhys-moore-of-st-johns.html 11. (T3) https://mr-mag.com/st-johns-marks-80-years-with-a-new-fragrance-rooted-in-island-heritage/ 12. (T3) https://lucaturin.substack.com/p/st-johns-bay-rum --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-17 Please cite with a link to the article URL.