February 4, 2025 • 43 mins
Join us for a deep dive into Purity Distillery, and how their strategic, almost scientific approach to marketing and growth has rewarded the brand with sustained success. President and CEO Tate Troelstrup shares valuable insights and advice for brands as well as individuals in the industry with host Jimmy Moreland and MHW's Brigid McCabe.
More about Purity Distillery: Website
More info about MHW at https://www.mhwltd.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today, onceagain, is MHW's Bridget McCabe.
Welcome back, bridget, how youbeen.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, jimmy Been .
Very well, I'm excited to talkabout purity today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We just finished recording and it was a really
fun conversation.
You know, sometimes peoplemight have the thought of like,
oh, there's going to be a CEOguest, they're going to be all
stuffy and super.
You know, straight laced andboring.
He was a professional, don'tget me wrong, but it's a really
fun, dynamic, engagingconversation that I think folks
are going to like.
But can you give us like alittle bit more background about
(00:51):
Purity and maybe your historyand just set the stage for us a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Absolutely so.
Mhw has imported PurityDistillery out of Malmö, sweden,
and served as its US backoffice compliance and logistics
partner since it launched in2009.
Today we're really lucky tospeak with Purity's president
and CEO, tate Trollstrup, who isan industry powerhouse.
He's built some of the largestcall brands, like Fernet, branca
, templeton, rye, deep, eddyVodka, whistlepig and, of course
(01:18):
, now Purity.
So I think this touches well onwhat you mentioned about being
a very energetic and fun CEO.
I think when you work inmarketing and finance and the
executive team for some of theseamazing call brands, you have
to really be an innovativepersonality, a very connective
person.
So I definitely noticed that aswell and I think we're lucky to
(01:40):
have him.
This happens to be a personalepisode for me and very fun,
because I started my beveragealcohol career at Purity over a
decade ago.
At the time, there were onlyfour of us at US headquarters,
our only SKU was Purity 34X thevodka, and we were really in
scrappy startup mode.
So I was in charge of thebrand's website, digital channel
(02:01):
, store locator, planning andexecuting on and off-premise
events, cocktail kits acrossmarkets, setting up distributor
presentations, going onride-alongs and generally any
other need that came up.
I remember visiting PurityAccounts with my Nikon camera
for web and social content.
We were very scrappy withbudgets, taking the subway to a
(02:21):
storage unit out in Bushwick,brooklyn, to pick up point of
sale and the neckers at the timewhich were award neckers,
coordinating branding andsamples, delivery with events
and broadcast segments for mediaand really a lot of time out in
the market.
So training at distributors,setting USBG meetings up and
shout out to Dwayne Fernandez Jrwho was my partner in crime,
(02:44):
the brand ambassador at the time.
So purity was always somewhere,talking to someone even at our
size at that time, because weunderstood that feet on the
ground in the market was thelifeblood and the way to growth
and I learned the power ofrelationships in this industry
because of that brand and Ireally appreciate it.
The brand has come a reallylong way and it's grown
incredibly under Tate'sstewardship I think you're going
(03:06):
to hear full circle,career-wise and
conversation-wise and so let'sgo ahead and fill in part of
(03:27):
that circle here by jumpingright into today's guest.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Our guest today is the president and CEO of Purity
Distillery and we're veryexcited to have him here.
Welcome, tate Troelstrup.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Fantastic, oh no applause needed.
No applause needed, it's justme.
Fantastic, oh no applauseneeded.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
No applause needed, it's just me.
I'll add that in in post.
You bet, tate, it's so good tohave you here.
Can you share with us a littlebit more about your background
and sort of how you came to bethe president and CEO of Purity
Vodka, and just tell us a littlebit more about you?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Absolutely Listen.
It's a pretty long and sordidtale but I think the short
version is I worked in bars as akid, sort of doing a little bit
of everything barbacking andeventually making cocktails.
Not very well, so I stuck topouring beers and then managing.
But I've always been sort ofdrawn to brand building and so
my first job in the industry waswith Infiniium Spirits and got
(04:21):
to be kind of a part of a lot ofreally fascinating brands
spirits and got to be kind of apart of a lot of really
fascinating brands.
We sort of relaunched FernetBranca for the US in the early
2000s, developed Templeton Ryefrom really concept to execution
and then on the volume side gotto kind of take Seagram's Vodka
from about 600,000 cases to amillion too, and so this build
was really attractive to me.
And so kind of following mycareer arc when I moved to Deep
(04:44):
Eddy and then to Whistlepig andthen to Purity, I've always
really been drawn to highquality liquid, really cool
brand stories and then sort ofdrawing this connection with
products and consumers right.
How do you sort of find that,that lightning in a bottle where
you bring something to marketthat's?
You know the number of brandsthat come out that are super
delicious and have kick-asspackaging that just never work.
(05:05):
Why does that happen?
And then, when it does happen,you know, what can we learn from
it?
For some reason I'm just verymuch drawn to that, and so
that's for me.
Coming from Whistlepig to Puritywas sort of this natural
transition of well, I've alwaystalked a lot of trash about what
I would do if I was the chiefexecutive, so now I get to sort
(05:26):
of test my theories and see ifI'm worth my salt.
But also it really hit for meall of the things that are
interesting really engagedownership who are not looking to
exit, really fascinating liquidwith a cool distillation story,
interesting and cool bottlethat's visually captivating.
And I also, to be very honest,like the challenge too, because
the idea that vodka is onlygoing to be dominated by, you
(05:48):
know, a handful of volumetricplayers is kind of boring and
stodgy to me.
So if I can take this reallycool, interesting brand that's
had a pretty good history so far, what a great jumping off point
.
That sort of fits my theory.
So I guess, to sum it all up,I'm a glutton for punishment.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's great experience and Tate.
I'll never forget the team Iworked with at Purity a decade
ago that started my Bevel careeroff, but I would have really
really enjoyed working with youand seeing what you've done with
the company has been reallyexceptional.
So you touched on it a littlebit.
But can you share a little bitmore about what drew you to
Purity?
Obviously there's a great valueproposition the liquid, the
(06:29):
team, so much growth potentialthere, very family anchored
brand and ownership.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So what are some of the things that you saw, short
term, financial look of a lot ofcompanies that are out there,
which which I get and make sense.
But it wasn't super compellingto me it was really the fact
that the family took a long termplay.
So they had had a fantasticyear in COVID, kind of like
everybody else, and then we'regoing through sort of the
natural decline and trying tounderstand what does this mean
(07:07):
for our long-term?
And so when they came, whenthey came to me, it wasn't a hey
, can you fix us right away?
Or hey, can you do this thingin three or six months, that's,
you know, purely revenue based,and it was more of hey, over the
next five years we would liketo really practically grow the
brand and reconnect withconsumers in a broader way.
(07:28):
And how do we do that?
And that, to me, was reallycompelling because it took the
longer-term view and thelonger-term investment, which to
me was just maybe selfishly, Iknew it gave me a little bit of
space to kind of come in andfigure things out, knowing that
vodka was going to be achallenge as much as I wanted
that.
So I think that was the numberone component, the baseline was
(07:49):
that?
To me it was just obvious Okay,well, the liquid's amazing, the
whole distillation story isfascinating.
So that part was maybe baselineand already there.
And then the real kicker wasokay, there's a long-term view
on this thing, so that we canfind out right, because we don't
know what we don't know untilwe get out in the market.
So I think if I pulled up myoriginal pitch deck for the
board, you know, for myinterview process, 75% of it's
(08:13):
gone now and I would almostcringe because the assumptions
were so bad.
So that space and freedom tolearn was really key for me.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Absolutely, and I echo that because even with my
time there only about threeyears, but Alf would be in the
market constantly, would come tothe US.
You know, magnus, reallyworking at the distillery and
kind of overseeing everythingthat's happening there.
So I think you know it's reallygreat when you can work with a
brand that has those kind ofanchors and is, you know, it's
(08:43):
not a pet project, it's reallylike a passion and a long-term
business that they want to seesucceed for the long term.
So I think that's really great.
And that dovetails very nicelyinto my next question.
So what have been the top threestrategic levers that you've
activated over the past years?
You mentioned that some of thebrand strategy that you
(09:04):
initially created has changed alittle bit.
And if I could just kind ofwalk us back through the history
of MHW, with Purity, I think westarted working together.
What was it?
Back in 2008, 2009.
In the first five years, puritywent from hundreds of cases
sold to tens of thousands andnearly 1.5 million in sales.
Now fast forward to this pastyear of performance 2024, and
(09:27):
you've led Purity to become atop national broad spirits
portfolio.
You know, I even have to catchmyself in not saying Purity
Vodka, it's Purity Distillery,because there's a wide range and
skew extensions that you havethat are very successful and
2024 was the best performanceyear to date.
So, multi-million revenue, nosign of stopping.
Would love to kind of hear howhas the strategy shifted and
(09:50):
what are those top three leversthat you're really pulling on to
pull you into the years ahead?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
The first was really kind of simplifying the business
.
So I think it's.
You know, when I came in, wehad an external selling team.
There was probably maybe toomany markets to really
reasonably figure out what to do.
So the first thing was almost arationalization not only of
SKUs but also of where are wegoing to put our focus and can
we go really deeper, not wider.
And that was just a very simplekind of process of what are the
(10:19):
things that are going to takeus into the future right
Item-wise, and what are thethings that are maybe fantastic
concepts but either their timeis not now or they need to kind
of just go away entirely becausethey don't fit what we are.
And so that was that firstpiece was kind of the
rationalization.
The next was kind of processorientation.
So it was how can we, do weutilize an external sales team?
(10:42):
Do we, can we justify havingour standalone sales team?
And what can set them up forsuccess?
That either hasn't delivered inthe past or isn't delivering in
these market conditions, and sowe built this.
It's a tight, loose process.
So we use this at Whistlepigtoo, where building
infrastructure is key.
So a sales team needs to be asloose as possible in the trade,
(11:05):
right.
They need to be able to buildrelationships, you know, kind of
secure deals quickly.
And in order for a sales teamto be loose, the process in the
backend has to be super tight.
So operations, finance teamkind of reporting data has to be
kind of at their fingertipsright.
So that's sort of the secondcomponent.
And both these things, by theway, are ongoing because we're
(11:25):
two years in, so results will bekind of you know where to see.
And then really it's been how toengage with the consumer and
our retail partners when we talkabout future growth.
So going back to the firstpoint of kind of rationalizing
SKUs or items, we don't reallyknow Right, I've never been
(11:45):
really good at predicting whatthe market's going to want.
I'm really good at going out tothe market saying, hey, what do
you want?
And that's sort of been thecrack the code here.
So, like we, last year welaunched a Citron vodka which
was, you know, been supersuccessful so far, and then the
375 size of our number one item,our 51 reserve vodka, and that
really just came from quite alittle bit, sitting down with
(12:07):
our distributor partners and ourlargest retail partners and
just asking them what are youmissing that you can sell more
of if Purity brought it tomarket?
And those are the two answers375 size and we would love an
organic citron vodka made in thestyle of purity.
And so in about 10 months weturned around the concept to
(12:27):
product on the shelf.
So it was a really cool testfor our operations team overseas
, the liquid team at thedistillery, and it also kind of
led to our new bottle style oflabels that are much more
environmentally efficient andalso just more consumer friendly
.
Right, we get to keep the coolpurity bottle that's a little
bit lighter, it's easier to seeon the shelf in the back bar.
(12:49):
So that's that.
Third lever has really been thedeveloping the consumer
conversation.
And when I say consumer, Ireally also mean our distributor
partners and retail partners,because they are representative
of that same group who are kindof voting with their checkbooks,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I think that you are a really great case study in how
to leverageimporter-distributor-retailer
relationships for maximum impact.
You know that that is your linkto the market, to the consumer.
I just want to share somethingthat Scott Saul, who is MHW's
executive vice president, sentto me to make sure it was
mentioned in this podcast.
So he calls Purity an exemplaryprofessional and very pleasant
(13:26):
client team with a keen focus oncompliance, operations,
logistics and really all of thepartnership that's critical for
behind the scenes brand buildingefforts.
So that was something I wantedto share with you and ask you so
how has MHW and all of yourdistributor partners helped with
your brand building, and whatadvice would you give to other
brands that might be a littlebit early in their journeys on
(13:49):
how to best start thosepartnerships?
How to, you know, keep themomentum going?
I think that's a big question.
That we get from craft brandsis okay.
We started off really strong.
How do we, you know, a fewyears in, really keep that going
and make sure that people areenergized and excited around our
efforts?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
First and foremost, I think this is a great
demonstration of how easy it isto bribe Scott Saul to say nice
things about people, so alwayshave a crisp 50 ready to
transfer from Venmo.
No, I think that probably forbrands that are starting out or
just starting to engage with areally wide-ranging outfit like
(14:28):
MHW is kind of I'm trying tothink of the Navy SEAL slogan,
where it's the slow is smoothand smooth is fast.
Take the time to reallyunderstand what the capabilities
are, because I think what we'vehad success with, at least in
my time and this is ongoing issort of understanding all the
services that MHW has and thenhow can I leverage those for
growth?
And oftentimes it's also howcan I leave these things to the
(14:50):
experts.
So state setups, a lot of thecompliance components that need
some automation.
It can be hard to understandand probably the best thing to
do is just to reach out to aresource team like MHW and just
say I think I emailed probablywith Kim more than she's
comfortable with, but it'sreally all right.
Where do I start with this?
Who do I talk to?
And it's going to be a lot ofphone calls and a lot of emails
(15:13):
to kind of get to that place,but put in that work first.
Because for me it's again partof this tight, loose strategy of
I got it, I have to haveoperations tight, I have to have
all these components in placeso I don't have a salesperson in
the market calling me and say,hey, we got this great new item
that everybody wants to order,but it's not registered with
this state and so I can't sellit for 60 days and all of a
(15:38):
sudden everything kind ofspirals out of control.
So it's probably first andforemost, just take it
step-by-step and understand whatall the opportunities and
services provided by an MHW are.
And then for me it's again it'snot any kind of secret strategy
, because I didn't go tobusiness school and I don't know
if I'm all that smart Justfocus initially, right.
You just need to go into ahandful of markets.
(15:59):
I don't think that one marketworks, but you need three very
different markets to learn in,you know, and test your brand
there, right.
Find those those players whoreally understand the brand and
want to build with you, whichjust takes time.
I mean, that's just.
I think I saw, when you knowit's Bridget kind of talking
about some of our team postingabout being in the market and
(16:19):
that's the whole thing isrelationships.
It's just get out there, buildthat trust.
And I would rather have a testmarket with five really amazing
retail partners who get it, whoare going to give us no-nonsense
feedback, than 50 points ofdistribution where I don't
really know what's happening.
Maybe the product's sitting onthe shelf, maybe it's moving,
(16:40):
maybe it's not.
That feedback loop doesn't helpme understand if I have a
viable brand concept and doesn'thelp me understand if I can go
out and raise more money or notfrom investors or for owners.
So it's again just it's focusedright, deeper, not wider.
You know, get really strong ina couple of places and then
expand slowly and mindfully.
(17:00):
So that would be my startingpoint advice.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's a great answer and I do have to say you
mentioned speaking with Kim.
One thing that we can highlightto brands that are listening as
well, that might be startingoff a relationship with MHW, an
importer, any distributor orservice provider.
Tate, you had initiallyscheduled a call with us when
you first came on board andshared some of your strategy
with our director of operations,with Kim, who's your client
(17:24):
account manager.
That's something that not toomany brands do and I think it
definitely helps.
It kind of shows your clientaccount manager where you're
looking for the brand to go.
They can anchor themselvesaround some of the questions
that you're asking.
So I think you know Kim reallyappreciates that.
(17:46):
And another brand that did thatthat our team still talks about
to this day is El Presidente.
I remember their team came intothe office and did a
presentation as to like okay,here's what we're looking to do
for the year ahead, and soanytime then that there was like
an operations or a logisticsrequest.
The team kind of understood thestrategy behind that.
So that was also something thatthe team mentioned to me that
they really appreciated that.
You, you know, keep us in theloop as a strategic vendor and
partner.
So just wanted to mention thatbefore we move on here.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It's good news, and El Presidente is a fantastic
product as well.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Now, when talking about markets, that seems to be
a big focus here and I like that.
You've come back multiple timesto this concept of deeper, not
wider, and I want to talk about,I guess, evaluating your
respective markets.
Is that just geography that youconsider deeper, not wider?
Or are you talking about youknow, individual demographics?
(18:31):
Are you talking about you knowproduct lines and sort of how
you communicate?
Is that approach of deeper, notwider?
Does that sort of flow througheverything that you do?
Is it all about focus?
And how do you decide where,physically or theoretically,
where to allocate resources?
It seems to me, is it almostlike scientific method?
It seems like you're all aboutexperimenting and seeing what
(18:53):
works and what doesn't.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So a couple of questions in there and then a
couple of hopefully good answers.
It definitely we're trying tomake it flow through.
So I think it's like anystrategy where, as long as I
repeat it enough, then I'llactually adhere to it, which is
great.
But it's a simple idea but itcan vary a lot by market.
So we talk a lot about the USas kind of being homogenous, but
then for us havinginternational ownership and
(19:15):
distribution, I try to introducethe idea that the US is 50
different individual marketsthat have different nuance and
compliance and profitabilitymatrix, which is really
important, right?
Because you might say, hey, Iwant to be huge in a very high
tax market like Illinois, butthen that really high tax might
absolutely erode your P&L anddestroy your profitability and
(19:38):
once you arrive, you don't haveany money for I don't know even
hotels to do a market visit.
So probably the first driver iswhat's the opportunity in a
specific market and what do wethink we can get done?
So we may have an amazingaccount in a state and say I
don't want to pick on any states, but you might say, hey, I
(19:59):
think my brand could really kickass in Nashville because we
have one hotel that really doeswell with the brand.
But then you sort of arrivethere and plan all this
resourcing and discover thatthere's some component that
doesn't translate.
So for us it's not a specificset of metrics, it's really to
kind of look at let's test ineach of these markets what works
and then let's resource thethings that do work.
(20:21):
So very much scientific methodand either jettison things that
don't work or put them on thelesson board for the future.
Right To say, okay, well,here's a lesson that we learned,
which is usually code forsomething that we got wrong, but
then we can still learn from itfor the future.
Right, maybe it's somethingthat we come back to or that we
still look at as an importanttotem for the future.
(20:44):
And then for us it's verydifferent.
So our top five marketscouldn't be more different.
Right, it's New York, newJersey, tennessee, georgia,
florida, and those five marketsare obviously very high desire,
markets for spirits, brands, butthey all operate.
Never the twain shall meet.
Even the teams that operatethose markets talk all the time
(21:04):
and we're always all in constantcommunication.
But the language and theacronyms and the things you can
do in Florida versus New York,you might as well be speaking a
totally different language.
So what we've done is reallykind of adapted to that to allow
for it.
So instead of coming in andsaying, hey, there's one blanket
strategy and let's try to sortof layer it over each market, no
matter what, we've kind of gonein a lot more like it's almost
(21:27):
amorphous, but just come in andsaid, okay, well, how can we
adapt?
How we engage in Florida?
Can we learn anything with whatwe do in Georgia?
A little bit, but not really,because Georgia's a lot of
independent retailers, there'sno chains, and Florida has a
very vibrant independent marketand a huge chain market.
So it's totally differentcreature-wise.
(21:49):
So I think, to kind of get backto the core question, yes, we
have metrics, but they'redifferent for each market and
they're really driven on what'sthe potential, right?
Because if I want my brand tobe a huge vodka brand in a
market like Tennessee, butTennessee is sort of a
five-share market, meaning ifyou're a million-case brand, a
five-share would be that you dothis 5% of your business in this
(22:12):
market.
Maybe the math doesn't play out.
So part of it is what do Ibelieve and what is the customer
base telling me?
And then, from a managementstrategy.
How much can I really do in themarket and that'll help me
decide how much we're going toinvest in that space.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I think as an outsider to this industry myself
, one of the more surprisingthings as I've learned more and
more just doing this podcast forover a year now, is how much no
matter how big your brand gets,that boots on the ground
engagement with consumers andyou know that ground level
retailers still seems to matter.
(22:47):
Can you talk about sort of howthat strategy sort of continues
to flow through in what Puritydoes and I guess how important
having the right team in placeto make sure that those ground
level executions are in place?
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's something I'vedone a lot over the course of my
career, in particular buildingteams and booths on the ground
teams.
The sort of fundamental realityfor adult beverage and a lot of
you know kind of mid-tempo andfast moving consumer goods is
relationship is absolutely key.
Whether you're selling spiritsor wine or beer or hot wheels,
(23:25):
you have to have a relationshipwith your end consumer, which is
happening through marketing alot, and you have to have a
great relationship with theperson who's actually bringing
your product in and putting iton the shelf, on the back bar in
the warehouse.
So the first piece is just thatrelationship building and that
ties with exactly what you said.
It's the right people.
So it's got.
Don't want to take away fromanybody that can move across
(23:47):
state lines, but the generalidea is like it really helps to
be enmeshed and understand yourmarket, your consumer that's
(24:08):
there, and have that ability toengage.
You know very much daily butthat can get expensive.
So you know the downfall of alot of great brands is you sort
of raise a bunch of money and gohire a bunch of people so you
can show some action, but thenthe people don't have the time
to really build therelationships they need in the
market, and we've been victim ofthat too.
(24:30):
It's that kind of thoughtprocess.
So what we've really worked onis let's have the right people
who are really empowered intheir markets.
They can control their budgets,they can be very nimble and
quick because, again, ourprocess in the back end is tight
so that they can really moveand wheel a deal and then
resource them as they ask for it.
So let them be out in themarket, come around, and then
(24:51):
they can come back and say, hey,in this market, we would like
to have more people.
So we need people walkingaround cracking bottles, doing
tastings Okay, great, anothermarket.
They might say, hey, in thismarket, I would really like to
have, I don't know, cab toppersor bus advertisements, right,
and so that's what we've done iskind of focused on yes, you
have to have the people in themarket, but it's the right
(25:12):
people and people who areempowered to make decisions or
make recommendations that arewell considered within that
market to engage.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Absolutely, and I have to just give a shout out to
there's one of your marketmanagers I always see on
LinkedIn doing tastings for heraccounts.
Making sure pull through is,you know, a big priority and I
just think that's such a greattestimonial to someone that
isn't going to outsourceeverything.
I mean, sometimes you need toknow when to do that right, when
to pull in, like your samplingagency and things like that.
(25:44):
But I always find that the bestsuccess when it comes to a
retailer is when they see thatthe actual person selling to
them, the market manager, iswilling to kind of like pull up
their bootstraps and do the work.
So I just had to give a shoutout to that market manager.
I think you know who I'mspeaking about.
So Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I'll tell you what everyone who has been or is now
or will be a period in thefuture has been very, very good
about that component.
That's something I thinkhistorically has really lived
well with the brand.
And then so much of the teamkind of follows that inspect
what you expect ethos of hey, ifI build an awesome display at
Bridget's Liquors in Newark,well, I want to go back in there
(26:24):
and make sure the display looksgood a week later and hey,
maybe I can pop up my stand andbe here for an hour or two hours
or three hours, talk withconsumers during highlight time,
because that owner is going toappreciate that time and it's an
investment not only in thebottles that you potentially
sell but in that relationship.
Again, so much of it's a trustcomponent and there's a lot and
(26:45):
I'm sure a lot of folks come onto the podcast to talk about how
we're leveraging technology andsort of automating tasks as
much as possible, which to me isfantastic.
Again, it's that tightoperational backend but
ultimately it's justrelationships.
That's what's driving the wholething.
Whether you're a 10, 11 millioncase brand or a 30,000 case
(27:05):
brand, it's still going to berelationship-driven as much as
we automate.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Good insight, good insight.
Okay, so I have to say Purity34 times is still my favorite
spirit.
I've tried a lot of spiritsfrom a lot of different
countries.
I think MHW at this point hasover 100 different countries
that we import from but Purity34 is my anchor and I go back to
it and I've actually opened afew accounts for you here in
Bayside, queens.
(27:30):
I think if you look around onyour CRD report and you can see
that I make sure that the liquorstore owners nearby take it in
Awesome, so kind of piggybackoff of that.
Can you tell us how thebusiness has approached SKU
extensions and where it's builton those traditional routes for
34X?
How do you evaluate success fora new SKU line extension and
(27:51):
how much time do you tell beforeyou understand if something is
a seasonal fit, permanent fit,and I know that there are some
innovations that you'reconsidering for the future.
So what does that process looklike to you and you don't need
to give any teasers here, butwould just love to hear how you
approach that as a CEO.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It can be a little bit of organized chaos to a
great degree.
So certainly there's with thenew line extension, like I've
kind of talked about before withCitron and 375, we've tried to
go more to a let's listen to themarket and kind of ask those.
Let's go to Bayside's Queensand talk to the retailers, and
what do you need right now?
Or going to distributorpartners and saying, hey, what's
(28:30):
a gap in your portfolio whereyou're hunting for a brand right
now that we can maybe innovateand develop for you?
That's sort of that process,the idea of kind of solving for
then what consumer wants is thatnext layer.
So there's things of coursethat we're looking at where the
rise of RTDs or the rise ofnon-alk or opportunities to kind
(28:51):
of bring those together right.
Should we have a canned non-alkof some sort?
Should we have a bottledespresso martini solution Really
kind of starts with.
Can we do it really well?
That's always the firstquestion.
So even if someone comes backand says, hey, a purity, you
guys should have an absolutelyoutstanding Shiraz as much as
(29:11):
I'd love to, I don't think wecould do it well.
The grape growing in Swedenjust really isn't fantastic.
So that's that marriage of A,does somebody want this product?
And then B, can we make itreally well?
And can we make it so well thatit fits sort of the purity mold
right?
Because for us sustainabilityis key.
So you know, we can't really goout and do a lot of different
things that maybe are popularright now because our own
(29:34):
internal standards ofdistillation of organic
ingredients and meeting kind ofEU sustainability standards, so
that's kind of the baseline forit.
It's interesting to sort offigure out where does a brand
become part of a core portfolioversus a seasonal or a limited
time offering, and that I don'tthink we've cracked the code
quite yet.
To my mind, the newintroductions that we have our
(29:57):
Citron and our 375, are enduring.
They're part of our long-term,which you might think of as like
a 100-year strategy, so they'refoundational.
It makes sense.
But then, being verytransparent, we have some
amazing gins, but with the ginportfolio category where it is,
some of those might be a lotmore interesting as limited time
offerings because we could playwith aging, were made on the
(30:20):
grounds of a 13th century castle, so why not lean into that?
So that's some of the thingsthat we kind of play with and
say, well, why don't we just puta bunch of gin into some rye
whiskey barrels in the oldarmory of the castle for a month
or two and see what happens?
(30:40):
Maybe it tastes awesome, maybeit's horrible, and then we can
kind of go from there.
But measuring the success is, Ithink, a little bit more arts
than science, because you canapply a lot of data and metrics
to it, but ultimately that'sgoing to be different for every
brand.
So for us, if our Citron is isin 23 States but it's mostly
(31:02):
selling in five, some brandsmight look at that as not worthy
of investment and for us we'dsay, okay, well, great, then
let's, let's resource andcontinue to build in those five
States and just know that that's, that's where we're going to
really develop and kind of buildthose things further.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
We've talked about things that we've got going on.
What about what's in the future?
What's going on in the futurefor purity?
Any uh can you give us, can youbreak any news here on the
podcast?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
We're excited right now that the new bottle is
actually just starting to hitthe market.
So our Halo brand, our numberone mover, is our Connoisseur 51
Reserve Vodka, and so that'sthe fastest mover and thus is
moving to this new bottle thefastest, which is really
exciting.
So it's again a little bitlighter.
The label itself is a littlemore premium and really easy to
(31:46):
read.
So that was one of our bigcomponents is that for the
future, as we expand, we want tobe able to not only be visible
in a well-lit retail environmentbut also in a back bar where we
can really pop off the shelf.
So in addition, of course,again it really fits our
sustainability promises andfocus.
So we're now you know thebottle is made with all
recyclable materials muchlighter, which is a lot more
(32:07):
friendly as far as you know,when you're talking about
shipping lanes and overallcarbon footprint, and so that's
the biggest component is reallymoving this year into that new
bottle style across our coreitems is very, very exciting.
And then really kind of movinginto the future, a lot of what
we are expanding into ourrelationships with hotel chains,
a lot more of a retail or sorry, national accounts on-premise,
(32:31):
which is a space the brandhasn't really delved into in the
past.
We're fortunate to have areally strong retail base
because we've got this greatconsumer core.
Now we're kind of moving almostbackwards.
A lot of brands will buildon-premise.
First we're really strongretail and now we're re-engaging
with on-premise and reallyworking on what are the
cocktails that we want to be apart of.
Espresso Martini Boom isobviously really really exciting
(32:54):
and perfect for a brand likePurity right, a premium import,
it's all organic, it's amazing.
So we love being in that spaceand then sort of our own
cocktails.
So working through how to be apart of Negroni right, because
we've got three different genexpressions so you can do sort
of Negroni three ways, which isa lot of fun.
So I think for us that's thebig kind of horizon that's in
(33:14):
front and that really dovetailswith our brand awareness right.
So a lot of where we've putfocus in the first two years
here were applying lessons thatI learned in particular at
Whistlepig on how do we buildour digital content and our
social media and our CRM right,our email list, to kind of
maximize the touch with our coreconsumers so that we have this
(33:35):
kind of ongoing relationshipthat can be very direct, and
that's a place where I'm excited.
We've got an incredible socialmedia team, actually based in
Gothenburg in Sweden.
They've done a really nice jobdeveloping the influencers that
we work with our cocktailcontent and kind of making that
social digital space a placethat consumers can land, whether
(33:55):
they're on Instagram orPinterest or YouTube, and they
can find a touch point and aplace to sort of start a
relationship with the brand andthen find cocktails and where to
buy it.
So I think those two componentsare for us us a really big
focus for not only 2025, butover the next three years is
just building that social anddigital presence so that we can
(34:18):
be very easy to find and thatmore consumers every day walk
into stores already knowImpurity versus discovering us
on the shelf.
They've already discovered us,they have a sense of who the
brand is.
It's a little harder to measure, but that's, for us, really
going to be part of that nextwave of growth.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Can I ask a question?
That's a total gear shift, alittle bit out of left field
here, for the certain subset oflisteners to this podcast who
are perhaps outside of theindustry or maybe very new to
the industry or consideringgetting into it because of your
(34:54):
background starting out as a barback and tending bar and all
that, and now today you're theCEO of an international
distilling brand.
For those listeners, I justwanted to see if you had any I
don't know advice or just bigpicture words of wisdom for
folks who are interested in orjust starting out in this
industry and want to someday bein your shoes, if you will.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
It's funny.
I was just having a conversationyesterday with a friend who
worked on my team at a previousbrand and is going through a
kind of inflection point in thecareer.
I think a lot of the advicethat I would give for anybody
coming in this industry, oranything in sort of really the
sales or consumer packagingrealm, is always be thinking
ahead three to five years foryourself.
I think that the people who aremost successful on my team
(35:33):
right now I think about theirinterview process versus, you
know, others was clarity in hey,this is where I would like to
be in three years or five years,which can be hard for a lot of
people, but it's also helps youkind of measure as you go along
is what I'm doing now, what Iwant to be doing in that
timeframe?
And then when you get to thatplace, kind of looking around
(35:53):
and saying, okay, well, I'vechanged over time.
What for me has always beenreally interesting is that I've
had some really cool chances tojump, but they've been a little
bit risky at the time.
Right In retrospect they looklike you know these very smooth
transitions and growth over thecourse of time, and the reality
is a lot of them were verychaotic.
You know timeframes and jumpingto some of these brands was
relatively high risk, right.
(36:13):
It was kind of like a bet onmyself.
But, being honest with yourself,if that's right for you,
because at the same time you canread a million Harvard business
review articles that say, hey,bet on yourself and go crazy but
for some people it's much morecomfortable to do something for
10 or 15 years in a stretch andif you know that and kind of set
that out as you get into theindustry, it can be, I think,
(36:35):
maybe more helpful and practicaland you feel more in control
when there's all these ups anddowns in sort of the space right
.
So I realize that's maybe alittle bit vague, but that's one
of the baselines that I put outof.
You know again, my friend thatcalled yesterday and I said,
well, three years ago, where didyou want to be?
And he's already well surpassedthat.
I said, okay, well, three yearsfrom now, where do you want to
(36:56):
be?
And the decision kind of madeitself.
Right.
It wasn't, it wasn't meadvocating for one or the other,
but he already kind of knew,you know what he wanted to do.
He's like, okay, well, can'tdecide for you.
But you know, if you've setthis goal for yourself, that can
be really, really instrumentalin making decisions and not
being sort of a passenger inyour own career journey.
(37:17):
You're the driver.
So you know, be clear andhonest with yourself as you get
into things and that way, asopportunities arise, you can
decide.
You know which way you're going, based on a plan.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
That's such a great point because so many people
asked me I had gone from Purityactually to an advertising
agency and then I ran severalhealthcare practices, high-end
cosmetic dermatology practicesout of Union Square, central
Park and the Hamptons and peoplewere like, how did you go from
ultra premium vodka andtechnology to you know, the
healthcare space and dermatology?
And I'm like, well, while itmight not have been, you know,
(37:55):
such a smooth topic transition,there's actually a lot of
connectivity and connectivetissue there that you can kind
of draw parallels to.
And if I hadn't had theopportunity to kind of do a lot
of the P&L work that I did atthe practice and hiring and
recruitment and managing peopleand you know that's something I
feel like was extremelyinstrumental for when I
(38:17):
eventually moved back intobeverage alcohol, I knew I
wanted to kind of come back.
I love the space.
So, coming back into MHW, I wasable to kind of pull on that and
bring it over to be able to,you know, create budgets and to
be able to hire different teamsand create revenue lines.
So I think you know people lookat, they might look at your
resume, for example, tate, andsee, like all these amazing
(38:37):
brands like Deep Eddy and youknow selling to Heaven Hill and
but when you go there at thetime like it wasn't where it was
when you sold it right, you hadto make it into that.
So I think it's really cool,kind of retroactively looking
back and seeing like how onething flows into the other, and
to be able to set that three tofive year goal, even if it's
something that's maybe a littlebit riskier or something that
(38:58):
doesn't line up withexpectations of what someone
might expect within the beveragealcohol space.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Oh yeah, my first supplier job.
My boss was fantastic and atrue mentor to me.
But my plan was I'll do thisfor about a year, year and a
half, and then I'm going to goback to the bar world, right?
What's it going to be like tohave a steady paycheck and work
for a real job kind of deal?
And he just laughed.
He's like, okay, well, if Ihave you for a year, then I'll
(39:26):
teach you what you can when weget there.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
We'll make the most out of it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Right.
And eight years later he saidare you still going to go back
to the bar world?
I thought I wish I had writtenthat down just for content.
So you know it does evolve overtime.
But again, I think clarifyingat least kind of where you see
yourself can also help whenthere's opportunities to engage
with different teams.
You know, I started after fromDeep Eddy Forward.
(39:50):
I always kind of said toeverybody, every CEO that I
worked for, I would love to sitin your seat one day, and that
opened up the conversation tosay, okay, well, what are the?
What are my weaknesses?
I need more exposure to finance, to marketing.
And then you can find out do Iactually want to do what I said
I did?
Or do I arrive and say, okay,nevermind, I never want to deal
(40:10):
with finance again, perfect,well then that kind of helps.
It helps kind of inform thejourney over time and remove
some of that what if?
Mystery like, well, what if Ihad done this?
It's okay, I spent time withthe finance team at a big
company and now I never want todo it again.
Great, now you know, or you'relike me or you arrive and you
know, engage with finance andmarketing.
The whole thing's fascinating.
It just feels like a big giantkind of game of Tetris which is
(40:37):
thrilling, and I love that sortof adventure every day of just
trying to kind of crack the codeand solve the puzzle and then
trying again the next day.
It's never boring, which Ireally enjoy.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
And you always have a retirement plan.
30 years from now, I want tosee Tate back behind the bar
slinging drinks.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
That's what it is.
Every year, I'm just puttingaway a couple of bucks for the
dream bar.
Sadly, as I said, my bartendingcareer was not illustrious.
Maybe beer tender, right, beerand shots that nobody makes a
better beer and a shot than me,so that's where I win.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Finally, a most critical question what is your
favorite we'll say adultbeverage?
What are you drinking thesedays?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Tell you what, for me it's been a Negroni.
I used to be a big Manhattanguy and I think over the last
year and a half, since I had myfirst Negroni with the Purity
Navy Strength Gin, never lookedback.
So it's not even lately, that'sjust been.
The nice through line is afantastic equal parts.
You know one, one and oneNegroni, unstoppable, except for
(41:41):
when I get to the second oneand then I stop.
But that's my beverage rightnow and seems to be for the
future.
So I have not switched over tothe espresso martini train, but
maybe that'll be next.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Negronis in moderation.
That's the drink for Tate,exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
And speaking of espresso martinis, I just want
to let everyone know, if thisepisode does come out prior to
WSWA, which I believe it does,we will be at WSWA, access Live
2025 in Denver, colorado, fromFebruary 2nd to the 4th.
Please stop by our booth.
Taste Purity Vodka, purityCitrone and Purity Gin.
Purity is also taking over oneof the opening reception bars
the first evening and then onthe second evening there will be
(42:23):
a taste of industry tables.
You can get some samples ofsome of the wonderful selection
that Purity Distillery has.
So thanks, so much, tate.
Thank you for your partnershipand everything you have done for
MHW, and we look forward tomany fruitful years together.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Absolutely.
Thanks, bridget, appreciate it,jimmy.
Appreciate all the time Funconversation.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
All right.
Thanks again to Tate Trollstrupand thank you listeners for
joining us on the MHW Markpodcast and thanks again to
Bridget McCabe for joining me inhosting.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Thanks, jimmy, see you next time.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
This podcast is produced by me, Jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing.
We'll see you then, Cheers.
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today, onceagain, is MHW's Bridget McCabe.
Welcome back, bridget, how youbeen.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, jimmy Been .
Very well, I'm excited to talkabout purity today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We just finished recording and it was a really
fun conversation.
You know, sometimes peoplemight have the thought of like,
oh, there's going to be a CEOguest, they're going to be all
stuffy and super.
You know, straight laced andboring.
He was a professional, don'tget me wrong, but it's a really
fun, dynamic, engagingconversation that I think folks
are going to like.
But can you give us like alittle bit more background about
(00:51):
Purity and maybe your historyand just set the stage for us a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Absolutely so.
Mhw has imported PurityDistillery out of Malmö, sweden,
and served as its US backoffice compliance and logistics
partner since it launched in2009.
Today we're really lucky tospeak with Purity's president
and CEO, tate Trollstrup, who isan industry powerhouse.
He's built some of the largestcall brands, like Fernet, branca
, templeton, rye, deep, eddyVodka, whistlepig and, of course
(01:18):
, now Purity.
So I think this touches well onwhat you mentioned about being
a very energetic and fun CEO.
I think when you work inmarketing and finance and the
executive team for some of theseamazing call brands, you have
to really be an innovativepersonality, a very connective
person.
So I definitely noticed that aswell and I think we're lucky to
(01:40):
have him.
This happens to be a personalepisode for me and very fun,
because I started my beveragealcohol career at Purity over a
decade ago.
At the time, there were onlyfour of us at US headquarters,
our only SKU was Purity 34X thevodka, and we were really in
scrappy startup mode.
So I was in charge of thebrand's website, digital channel
(02:01):
, store locator, planning andexecuting on and off-premise
events, cocktail kits acrossmarkets, setting up distributor
presentations, going onride-alongs and generally any
other need that came up.
I remember visiting PurityAccounts with my Nikon camera
for web and social content.
We were very scrappy withbudgets, taking the subway to a
(02:21):
storage unit out in Bushwick,brooklyn, to pick up point of
sale and the neckers at the timewhich were award neckers,
coordinating branding andsamples, delivery with events
and broadcast segments for mediaand really a lot of time out in
the market.
So training at distributors,setting USBG meetings up and
shout out to Dwayne Fernandez Jrwho was my partner in crime,
(02:44):
the brand ambassador at the time.
So purity was always somewhere,talking to someone even at our
size at that time, because weunderstood that feet on the
ground in the market was thelifeblood and the way to growth
and I learned the power ofrelationships in this industry
because of that brand and Ireally appreciate it.
The brand has come a reallylong way and it's grown
incredibly under Tate'sstewardship I think you're going
(03:06):
to hear full circle,career-wise and
conversation-wise and so let'sgo ahead and fill in part of
(03:27):
that circle here by jumpingright into today's guest.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Our guest today is the president and CEO of Purity
Distillery and we're veryexcited to have him here.
Welcome, tate Troelstrup.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Fantastic, oh no applause needed.
No applause needed, it's justme.
Fantastic, oh no applauseneeded.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
No applause needed, it's just me.
I'll add that in in post.
You bet, tate, it's so good tohave you here.
Can you share with us a littlebit more about your background
and sort of how you came to bethe president and CEO of Purity
Vodka, and just tell us a littlebit more about you?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Absolutely Listen.
It's a pretty long and sordidtale but I think the short
version is I worked in bars as akid, sort of doing a little bit
of everything barbacking andeventually making cocktails.
Not very well, so I stuck topouring beers and then managing.
But I've always been sort ofdrawn to brand building and so
my first job in the industry waswith Infiniium Spirits and got
(04:21):
to be kind of a part of a lot ofreally fascinating brands
spirits and got to be kind of apart of a lot of really
fascinating brands.
We sort of relaunched FernetBranca for the US in the early
2000s, developed Templeton Ryefrom really concept to execution
and then on the volume side gotto kind of take Seagram's Vodka
from about 600,000 cases to amillion too, and so this build
was really attractive to me.
And so kind of following mycareer arc when I moved to Deep
(04:44):
Eddy and then to Whistlepig andthen to Purity, I've always
really been drawn to highquality liquid, really cool
brand stories and then sort ofdrawing this connection with
products and consumers right.
How do you sort of find that,that lightning in a bottle where
you bring something to marketthat's?
You know the number of brandsthat come out that are super
delicious and have kick-asspackaging that just never work.
(05:05):
Why does that happen?
And then, when it does happen,you know, what can we learn from
it?
For some reason I'm just verymuch drawn to that, and so
that's for me.
Coming from Whistlepig to Puritywas sort of this natural
transition of well, I've alwaystalked a lot of trash about what
I would do if I was the chiefexecutive, so now I get to sort
(05:26):
of test my theories and see ifI'm worth my salt.
But also it really hit for meall of the things that are
interesting really engagedownership who are not looking to
exit, really fascinating liquidwith a cool distillation story,
interesting and cool bottlethat's visually captivating.
And I also, to be very honest,like the challenge too, because
the idea that vodka is onlygoing to be dominated by, you
(05:48):
know, a handful of volumetricplayers is kind of boring and
stodgy to me.
So if I can take this reallycool, interesting brand that's
had a pretty good history so far, what a great jumping off point
.
That sort of fits my theory.
So I guess, to sum it all up,I'm a glutton for punishment.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's great experience and Tate.
I'll never forget the team Iworked with at Purity a decade
ago that started my Bevel careeroff, but I would have really
really enjoyed working with youand seeing what you've done with
the company has been reallyexceptional.
So you touched on it a littlebit.
But can you share a little bitmore about what drew you to
Purity?
Obviously there's a great valueproposition the liquid, the
(06:29):
team, so much growth potentialthere, very family anchored
brand and ownership.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So what are some of the things that you saw, short
term, financial look of a lot ofcompanies that are out there,
which which I get and make sense.
But it wasn't super compellingto me it was really the fact
that the family took a long termplay.
So they had had a fantasticyear in COVID, kind of like
everybody else, and then we'regoing through sort of the
natural decline and trying tounderstand what does this mean
(07:07):
for our long-term?
And so when they came, whenthey came to me, it wasn't a hey
, can you fix us right away?
Or hey, can you do this thingin three or six months, that's,
you know, purely revenue based,and it was more of hey, over the
next five years we would liketo really practically grow the
brand and reconnect withconsumers in a broader way.
(07:28):
And how do we do that?
And that, to me, was reallycompelling because it took the
longer-term view and thelonger-term investment, which to
me was just maybe selfishly, Iknew it gave me a little bit of
space to kind of come in andfigure things out, knowing that
vodka was going to be achallenge as much as I wanted
that.
So I think that was the numberone component, the baseline was
(07:49):
that?
To me it was just obvious Okay,well, the liquid's amazing, the
whole distillation story isfascinating.
So that part was maybe baselineand already there.
And then the real kicker wasokay, there's a long-term view
on this thing, so that we canfind out right, because we don't
know what we don't know untilwe get out in the market.
So I think if I pulled up myoriginal pitch deck for the
board, you know, for myinterview process, 75% of it's
(08:13):
gone now and I would almostcringe because the assumptions
were so bad.
So that space and freedom tolearn was really key for me.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Absolutely, and I echo that because even with my
time there only about threeyears, but Alf would be in the
market constantly, would come tothe US.
You know, magnus, reallyworking at the distillery and
kind of overseeing everythingthat's happening there.
So I think you know it's reallygreat when you can work with a
brand that has those kind ofanchors and is, you know, it's
(08:43):
not a pet project, it's reallylike a passion and a long-term
business that they want to seesucceed for the long term.
So I think that's really great.
And that dovetails very nicelyinto my next question.
So what have been the top threestrategic levers that you've
activated over the past years?
You mentioned that some of thebrand strategy that you
(09:04):
initially created has changed alittle bit.
And if I could just kind ofwalk us back through the history
of MHW, with Purity, I think westarted working together.
What was it?
Back in 2008, 2009.
In the first five years, puritywent from hundreds of cases
sold to tens of thousands andnearly 1.5 million in sales.
Now fast forward to this pastyear of performance 2024, and
(09:27):
you've led Purity to become atop national broad spirits
portfolio.
You know, I even have to catchmyself in not saying Purity
Vodka, it's Purity Distillery,because there's a wide range and
skew extensions that you havethat are very successful and
2024 was the best performanceyear to date.
So, multi-million revenue, nosign of stopping.
Would love to kind of hear howhas the strategy shifted and
(09:50):
what are those top three leversthat you're really pulling on to
pull you into the years ahead?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
The first was really kind of simplifying the business
.
So I think it's.
You know, when I came in, wehad an external selling team.
There was probably maybe toomany markets to really
reasonably figure out what to do.
So the first thing was almost arationalization not only of
SKUs but also of where are wegoing to put our focus and can
we go really deeper, not wider.
And that was just a very simplekind of process of what are the
(10:19):
things that are going to takeus into the future right
Item-wise, and what are thethings that are maybe fantastic
concepts but either their timeis not now or they need to kind
of just go away entirely becausethey don't fit what we are.
And so that was that firstpiece was kind of the
rationalization.
The next was kind of processorientation.
So it was how can we, do weutilize an external sales team?
(10:42):
Do we, can we justify havingour standalone sales team?
And what can set them up forsuccess?
That either hasn't delivered inthe past or isn't delivering in
these market conditions, and sowe built this.
It's a tight, loose process.
So we use this at Whistlepigtoo, where building
infrastructure is key.
So a sales team needs to be asloose as possible in the trade,
(11:05):
right.
They need to be able to buildrelationships, you know, kind of
secure deals quickly.
And in order for a sales teamto be loose, the process in the
backend has to be super tight.
So operations, finance teamkind of reporting data has to be
kind of at their fingertipsright.
So that's sort of the secondcomponent.
And both these things, by theway, are ongoing because we're
(11:25):
two years in, so results will bekind of you know where to see.
And then really it's been how toengage with the consumer and
our retail partners when we talkabout future growth.
So going back to the firstpoint of kind of rationalizing
SKUs or items, we don't reallyknow Right, I've never been
(11:45):
really good at predicting whatthe market's going to want.
I'm really good at going out tothe market saying, hey, what do
you want?
And that's sort of been thecrack the code here.
So, like we, last year welaunched a Citron vodka which
was, you know, been supersuccessful so far, and then the
375 size of our number one item,our 51 reserve vodka, and that
really just came from quite alittle bit, sitting down with
(12:07):
our distributor partners and ourlargest retail partners and
just asking them what are youmissing that you can sell more
of if Purity brought it tomarket?
And those are the two answers375 size and we would love an
organic citron vodka made in thestyle of purity.
And so in about 10 months weturned around the concept to
(12:27):
product on the shelf.
So it was a really cool testfor our operations team overseas
, the liquid team at thedistillery, and it also kind of
led to our new bottle style oflabels that are much more
environmentally efficient andalso just more consumer friendly
.
Right, we get to keep the coolpurity bottle that's a little
bit lighter, it's easier to seeon the shelf in the back bar.
(12:49):
So that's that.
Third lever has really been thedeveloping the consumer
conversation.
And when I say consumer, Ireally also mean our distributor
partners and retail partners,because they are representative
of that same group who are kindof voting with their checkbooks,
if you will.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I think that you are a really great case study in how
to leverageimporter-distributor-retailer
relationships for maximum impact.
You know that that is your linkto the market, to the consumer.
I just want to share somethingthat Scott Saul, who is MHW's
executive vice president, sentto me to make sure it was
mentioned in this podcast.
So he calls Purity an exemplaryprofessional and very pleasant
(13:26):
client team with a keen focus oncompliance, operations,
logistics and really all of thepartnership that's critical for
behind the scenes brand buildingefforts.
So that was something I wantedto share with you and ask you so
how has MHW and all of yourdistributor partners helped with
your brand building, and whatadvice would you give to other
brands that might be a littlebit early in their journeys on
(13:49):
how to best start thosepartnerships?
How to, you know, keep themomentum going?
I think that's a big question.
That we get from craft brandsis okay.
We started off really strong.
How do we, you know, a fewyears in, really keep that going
and make sure that people areenergized and excited around our
efforts?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
First and foremost, I think this is a great
demonstration of how easy it isto bribe Scott Saul to say nice
things about people, so alwayshave a crisp 50 ready to
transfer from Venmo.
No, I think that probably forbrands that are starting out or
just starting to engage with areally wide-ranging outfit like
(14:28):
MHW is kind of I'm trying tothink of the Navy SEAL slogan,
where it's the slow is smoothand smooth is fast.
Take the time to reallyunderstand what the capabilities
are, because I think what we'vehad success with, at least in
my time and this is ongoing issort of understanding all the
services that MHW has and thenhow can I leverage those for
growth?
And oftentimes it's also howcan I leave these things to the
(14:50):
experts.
So state setups, a lot of thecompliance components that need
some automation.
It can be hard to understandand probably the best thing to
do is just to reach out to aresource team like MHW and just
say I think I emailed probablywith Kim more than she's
comfortable with, but it'sreally all right.
Where do I start with this?
Who do I talk to?
And it's going to be a lot ofphone calls and a lot of emails
(15:13):
to kind of get to that place,but put in that work first.
Because for me it's again partof this tight, loose strategy of
I got it, I have to haveoperations tight, I have to have
all these components in placeso I don't have a salesperson in
the market calling me and say,hey, we got this great new item
that everybody wants to order,but it's not registered with
this state and so I can't sellit for 60 days and all of a
(15:38):
sudden everything kind ofspirals out of control.
So it's probably first andforemost, just take it
step-by-step and understand whatall the opportunities and
services provided by an MHW are.
And then for me it's again it'snot any kind of secret strategy
, because I didn't go tobusiness school and I don't know
if I'm all that smart Justfocus initially, right.
You just need to go into ahandful of markets.
(15:59):
I don't think that one marketworks, but you need three very
different markets to learn in,you know, and test your brand
there, right.
Find those those players whoreally understand the brand and
want to build with you, whichjust takes time.
I mean, that's just.
I think I saw, when you knowit's Bridget kind of talking
about some of our team postingabout being in the market and
(16:19):
that's the whole thing isrelationships.
It's just get out there, buildthat trust.
And I would rather have a testmarket with five really amazing
retail partners who get it, whoare going to give us no-nonsense
feedback, than 50 points ofdistribution where I don't
really know what's happening.
Maybe the product's sitting onthe shelf, maybe it's moving,
(16:40):
maybe it's not.
That feedback loop doesn't helpme understand if I have a
viable brand concept and doesn'thelp me understand if I can go
out and raise more money or notfrom investors or for owners.
So it's again just it's focusedright, deeper, not wider.
You know, get really strong ina couple of places and then
expand slowly and mindfully.
(17:00):
So that would be my startingpoint advice.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's a great answer and I do have to say you
mentioned speaking with Kim.
One thing that we can highlightto brands that are listening as
well, that might be startingoff a relationship with MHW, an
importer, any distributor orservice provider.
Tate, you had initiallyscheduled a call with us when
you first came on board andshared some of your strategy
with our director of operations,with Kim, who's your client
(17:24):
account manager.
That's something that not toomany brands do and I think it
definitely helps.
It kind of shows your clientaccount manager where you're
looking for the brand to go.
They can anchor themselvesaround some of the questions
that you're asking.
So I think you know Kim reallyappreciates that.
(17:46):
And another brand that did thatthat our team still talks about
to this day is El Presidente.
I remember their team came intothe office and did a
presentation as to like okay,here's what we're looking to do
for the year ahead, and soanytime then that there was like
an operations or a logisticsrequest.
The team kind of understood thestrategy behind that.
So that was also something thatthe team mentioned to me that
they really appreciated that.
You, you know, keep us in theloop as a strategic vendor and
partner.
So just wanted to mention thatbefore we move on here.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
It's good news, and El Presidente is a fantastic
product as well.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Now, when talking about markets, that seems to be
a big focus here and I like that.
You've come back multiple timesto this concept of deeper, not
wider, and I want to talk about,I guess, evaluating your
respective markets.
Is that just geography that youconsider deeper, not wider?
Or are you talking about youknow, individual demographics?
(18:31):
Are you talking about you knowproduct lines and sort of how
you communicate?
Is that approach of deeper, notwider?
Does that sort of flow througheverything that you do?
Is it all about focus?
And how do you decide where,physically or theoretically,
where to allocate resources?
It seems to me, is it almostlike scientific method?
It seems like you're all aboutexperimenting and seeing what
(18:53):
works and what doesn't.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
So a couple of questions in there and then a
couple of hopefully good answers.
It definitely we're trying tomake it flow through.
So I think it's like anystrategy where, as long as I
repeat it enough, then I'llactually adhere to it, which is
great.
But it's a simple idea but itcan vary a lot by market.
So we talk a lot about the USas kind of being homogenous, but
then for us havinginternational ownership and
(19:15):
distribution, I try to introducethe idea that the US is 50
different individual marketsthat have different nuance and
compliance and profitabilitymatrix, which is really
important, right?
Because you might say, hey, Iwant to be huge in a very high
tax market like Illinois, butthen that really high tax might
absolutely erode your P&L anddestroy your profitability and
(19:38):
once you arrive, you don't haveany money for I don't know even
hotels to do a market visit.
So probably the first driver iswhat's the opportunity in a
specific market and what do wethink we can get done?
So we may have an amazingaccount in a state and say I
don't want to pick on any states, but you might say, hey, I
(19:59):
think my brand could really kickass in Nashville because we
have one hotel that really doeswell with the brand.
But then you sort of arrivethere and plan all this
resourcing and discover thatthere's some component that
doesn't translate.
So for us it's not a specificset of metrics, it's really to
kind of look at let's test ineach of these markets what works
and then let's resource thethings that do work.
(20:21):
So very much scientific methodand either jettison things that
don't work or put them on thelesson board for the future.
Right To say, okay, well,here's a lesson that we learned,
which is usually code forsomething that we got wrong, but
then we can still learn from itfor the future.
Right, maybe it's somethingthat we come back to or that we
still look at as an importanttotem for the future.
(20:44):
And then for us it's verydifferent.
So our top five marketscouldn't be more different.
Right, it's New York, newJersey, tennessee, georgia,
florida, and those five marketsare obviously very high desire,
markets for spirits, brands, butthey all operate.
Never the twain shall meet.
Even the teams that operatethose markets talk all the time
(21:04):
and we're always all in constantcommunication.
But the language and theacronyms and the things you can
do in Florida versus New York,you might as well be speaking a
totally different language.
So what we've done is reallykind of adapted to that to allow
for it.
So instead of coming in andsaying, hey, there's one blanket
strategy and let's try to sortof layer it over each market, no
matter what, we've kind of gonein a lot more like it's almost
(21:27):
amorphous, but just come in andsaid, okay, well, how can we
adapt?
How we engage in Florida?
Can we learn anything with whatwe do in Georgia?
A little bit, but not really,because Georgia's a lot of
independent retailers, there'sno chains, and Florida has a
very vibrant independent marketand a huge chain market.
So it's totally differentcreature-wise.
(21:49):
So I think, to kind of get backto the core question, yes, we
have metrics, but they'redifferent for each market and
they're really driven on what'sthe potential, right?
Because if I want my brand tobe a huge vodka brand in a
market like Tennessee, butTennessee is sort of a
five-share market, meaning ifyou're a million-case brand, a
five-share would be that you dothis 5% of your business in this
(22:12):
market.
Maybe the math doesn't play out.
So part of it is what do Ibelieve and what is the customer
base telling me?
And then, from a managementstrategy.
How much can I really do in themarket and that'll help me
decide how much we're going toinvest in that space.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I think as an outsider to this industry myself
, one of the more surprisingthings as I've learned more and
more just doing this podcast forover a year now, is how much no
matter how big your brand gets,that boots on the ground
engagement with consumers andyou know that ground level
retailers still seems to matter.
(22:47):
Can you talk about sort of howthat strategy sort of continues
to flow through in what Puritydoes and I guess how important
having the right team in placeto make sure that those ground
level executions are in place?
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's something I'vedone a lot over the course of my
career, in particular buildingteams and booths on the ground
teams.
The sort of fundamental realityfor adult beverage and a lot of
you know kind of mid-tempo andfast moving consumer goods is
relationship is absolutely key.
Whether you're selling spiritsor wine or beer or hot wheels,
(23:25):
you have to have a relationshipwith your end consumer, which is
happening through marketing alot, and you have to have a
great relationship with theperson who's actually bringing
your product in and putting iton the shelf, on the back bar in
the warehouse.
So the first piece is just thatrelationship building and that
ties with exactly what you said.
It's the right people.
So it's got.
Don't want to take away fromanybody that can move across
(23:47):
state lines, but the generalidea is like it really helps to
be enmeshed and understand yourmarket, your consumer that's
(24:08):
there, and have that ability toengage.
You know very much daily butthat can get expensive.
So you know the downfall of alot of great brands is you sort
of raise a bunch of money and gohire a bunch of people so you
can show some action, but thenthe people don't have the time
to really build therelationships they need in the
market, and we've been victim ofthat too.
(24:30):
It's that kind of thoughtprocess.
So what we've really worked onis let's have the right people
who are really empowered intheir markets.
They can control their budgets,they can be very nimble and
quick because, again, ourprocess in the back end is tight
so that they can really moveand wheel a deal and then
resource them as they ask for it.
So let them be out in themarket, come around, and then
(24:51):
they can come back and say, hey,in this market, we would like
to have more people.
So we need people walkingaround cracking bottles, doing
tastings Okay, great, anothermarket.
They might say, hey, in thismarket, I would really like to
have, I don't know, cab toppersor bus advertisements, right,
and so that's what we've done iskind of focused on yes, you
have to have the people in themarket, but it's the right
(25:12):
people and people who areempowered to make decisions or
make recommendations that arewell considered within that
market to engage.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Absolutely, and I have to just give a shout out to
there's one of your marketmanagers I always see on
LinkedIn doing tastings for heraccounts.
Making sure pull through is,you know, a big priority and I
just think that's such a greattestimonial to someone that
isn't going to outsourceeverything.
I mean, sometimes you need toknow when to do that right, when
to pull in, like your samplingagency and things like that.
(25:44):
But I always find that the bestsuccess when it comes to a
retailer is when they see thatthe actual person selling to
them, the market manager, iswilling to kind of like pull up
their bootstraps and do the work.
So I just had to give a shoutout to that market manager.
I think you know who I'mspeaking about.
So Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I'll tell you what everyone who has been or is now
or will be a period in thefuture has been very, very good
about that component.
That's something I thinkhistorically has really lived
well with the brand.
And then so much of the teamkind of follows that inspect
what you expect ethos of hey, ifI build an awesome display at
Bridget's Liquors in Newark,well, I want to go back in there
(26:24):
and make sure the display looksgood a week later and hey,
maybe I can pop up my stand andbe here for an hour or two hours
or three hours, talk withconsumers during highlight time,
because that owner is going toappreciate that time and it's an
investment not only in thebottles that you potentially
sell but in that relationship.
Again, so much of it's a trustcomponent and there's a lot and
(26:45):
I'm sure a lot of folks come onto the podcast to talk about how
we're leveraging technology andsort of automating tasks as
much as possible, which to me isfantastic.
Again, it's that tightoperational backend but
ultimately it's justrelationships.
That's what's driving the wholething.
Whether you're a 10, 11 millioncase brand or a 30,000 case
(27:05):
brand, it's still going to berelationship-driven as much as
we automate.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Good insight, good insight.
Okay, so I have to say Purity34 times is still my favorite
spirit.
I've tried a lot of spiritsfrom a lot of different
countries.
I think MHW at this point hasover 100 different countries
that we import from but Purity34 is my anchor and I go back to
it and I've actually opened afew accounts for you here in
Bayside, queens.
(27:30):
I think if you look around onyour CRD report and you can see
that I make sure that the liquorstore owners nearby take it in
Awesome, so kind of piggybackoff of that.
Can you tell us how thebusiness has approached SKU
extensions and where it's builton those traditional routes for
34X?
How do you evaluate success fora new SKU line extension and
(27:51):
how much time do you tell beforeyou understand if something is
a seasonal fit, permanent fit,and I know that there are some
innovations that you'reconsidering for the future.
So what does that process looklike to you and you don't need
to give any teasers here, butwould just love to hear how you
approach that as a CEO.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It can be a little bit of organized chaos to a
great degree.
So certainly there's with thenew line extension, like I've
kind of talked about before withCitron and 375, we've tried to
go more to a let's listen to themarket and kind of ask those.
Let's go to Bayside's Queensand talk to the retailers, and
what do you need right now?
Or going to distributorpartners and saying, hey, what's
(28:30):
a gap in your portfolio whereyou're hunting for a brand right
now that we can maybe innovateand develop for you?
That's sort of that process,the idea of kind of solving for
then what consumer wants is thatnext layer.
So there's things of coursethat we're looking at where the
rise of RTDs or the rise ofnon-alk or opportunities to kind
(28:51):
of bring those together right.
Should we have a canned non-alkof some sort?
Should we have a bottledespresso martini solution Really
kind of starts with.
Can we do it really well?
That's always the firstquestion.
So even if someone comes backand says, hey, a purity, you
guys should have an absolutelyoutstanding Shiraz as much as
(29:11):
I'd love to, I don't think wecould do it well.
The grape growing in Swedenjust really isn't fantastic.
So that's that marriage of A,does somebody want this product?
And then B, can we make itreally well?
And can we make it so well thatit fits sort of the purity mold
right?
Because for us sustainabilityis key.
So you know, we can't really goout and do a lot of different
things that maybe are popularright now because our own
(29:34):
internal standards ofdistillation of organic
ingredients and meeting kind ofEU sustainability standards, so
that's kind of the baseline forit.
It's interesting to sort offigure out where does a brand
become part of a core portfolioversus a seasonal or a limited
time offering, and that I don'tthink we've cracked the code
quite yet.
To my mind, the newintroductions that we have our
(29:57):
Citron and our 375, are enduring.
They're part of our long-term,which you might think of as like
a 100-year strategy, so they'refoundational.
It makes sense.
But then, being verytransparent, we have some
amazing gins, but with the ginportfolio category where it is,
some of those might be a lotmore interesting as limited time
offerings because we could playwith aging, were made on the
(30:20):
grounds of a 13th century castle, so why not lean into that?
So that's some of the thingsthat we kind of play with and
say, well, why don't we just puta bunch of gin into some rye
whiskey barrels in the oldarmory of the castle for a month
or two and see what happens?
(30:40):
Maybe it tastes awesome, maybeit's horrible, and then we can
kind of go from there.
But measuring the success is, Ithink, a little bit more arts
than science, because you canapply a lot of data and metrics
to it, but ultimately that'sgoing to be different for every
brand.
So for us, if our Citron is isin 23 States but it's mostly
(31:02):
selling in five, some brandsmight look at that as not worthy
of investment and for us we'dsay, okay, well, great, then
let's, let's resource andcontinue to build in those five
States and just know that that's, that's where we're going to
really develop and kind of buildthose things further.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
We've talked about things that we've got going on.
What about what's in the future?
What's going on in the futurefor purity?
Any uh can you give us, can youbreak any news here on the
podcast?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
We're excited right now that the new bottle is
actually just starting to hitthe market.
So our Halo brand, our numberone mover, is our Connoisseur 51
Reserve Vodka, and so that'sthe fastest mover and thus is
moving to this new bottle thefastest, which is really
exciting.
So it's again a little bitlighter.
The label itself is a littlemore premium and really easy to
(31:46):
read.
So that was one of our bigcomponents is that for the
future, as we expand, we want tobe able to not only be visible
in a well-lit retail environmentbut also in a back bar where we
can really pop off the shelf.
So in addition, of course,again it really fits our
sustainability promises andfocus.
So we're now you know thebottle is made with all
recyclable materials muchlighter, which is a lot more
(32:07):
friendly as far as you know,when you're talking about
shipping lanes and overallcarbon footprint, and so that's
the biggest component is reallymoving this year into that new
bottle style across our coreitems is very, very exciting.
And then really kind of movinginto the future, a lot of what
we are expanding into ourrelationships with hotel chains,
a lot more of a retail or sorry, national accounts on-premise,
(32:31):
which is a space the brandhasn't really delved into in the
past.
We're fortunate to have areally strong retail base
because we've got this greatconsumer core.
Now we're kind of moving almostbackwards.
A lot of brands will buildon-premise.
First we're really strongretail and now we're re-engaging
with on-premise and reallyworking on what are the
cocktails that we want to be apart of.
Espresso Martini Boom isobviously really really exciting
(32:54):
and perfect for a brand likePurity right, a premium import,
it's all organic, it's amazing.
So we love being in that spaceand then sort of our own
cocktails.
So working through how to be apart of Negroni right, because
we've got three different genexpressions so you can do sort
of Negroni three ways, which isa lot of fun.
So I think for us that's thebig kind of horizon that's in
(33:14):
front and that really dovetailswith our brand awareness right.
So a lot of where we've putfocus in the first two years
here were applying lessons thatI learned in particular at
Whistlepig on how do we buildour digital content and our
social media and our CRM right,our email list, to kind of
maximize the touch with our coreconsumers so that we have this
(33:35):
kind of ongoing relationshipthat can be very direct, and
that's a place where I'm excited.
We've got an incredible socialmedia team, actually based in
Gothenburg in Sweden.
They've done a really nice jobdeveloping the influencers that
we work with our cocktailcontent and kind of making that
social digital space a placethat consumers can land, whether
(33:55):
they're on Instagram orPinterest or YouTube, and they
can find a touch point and aplace to sort of start a
relationship with the brand andthen find cocktails and where to
buy it.
So I think those two componentsare for us us a really big
focus for not only 2025, butover the next three years is
just building that social anddigital presence so that we can
(34:18):
be very easy to find and thatmore consumers every day walk
into stores already knowImpurity versus discovering us
on the shelf.
They've already discovered us,they have a sense of who the
brand is.
It's a little harder to measure, but that's, for us, really
going to be part of that nextwave of growth.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Can I ask a question?
That's a total gear shift, alittle bit out of left field
here, for the certain subset oflisteners to this podcast who
are perhaps outside of theindustry or maybe very new to
the industry or consideringgetting into it because of your
(34:54):
background starting out as a barback and tending bar and all
that, and now today you're theCEO of an international
distilling brand.
For those listeners, I justwanted to see if you had any I
don't know advice or just bigpicture words of wisdom for
folks who are interested in orjust starting out in this
industry and want to someday bein your shoes, if you will.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
It's funny.
I was just having a conversationyesterday with a friend who
worked on my team at a previousbrand and is going through a
kind of inflection point in thecareer.
I think a lot of the advicethat I would give for anybody
coming in this industry, oranything in sort of really the
sales or consumer packagingrealm, is always be thinking
ahead three to five years foryourself.
I think that the people who aremost successful on my team
(35:33):
right now I think about theirinterview process versus, you
know, others was clarity in hey,this is where I would like to
be in three years or five years,which can be hard for a lot of
people, but it's also helps youkind of measure as you go along
is what I'm doing now, what Iwant to be doing in that
timeframe?
And then when you get to thatplace, kind of looking around
(35:53):
and saying, okay, well, I'vechanged over time.
What for me has always beenreally interesting is that I've
had some really cool chances tojump, but they've been a little
bit risky at the time.
Right In retrospect they looklike you know these very smooth
transitions and growth over thecourse of time, and the reality
is a lot of them were verychaotic.
You know timeframes and jumpingto some of these brands was
relatively high risk, right.
(36:13):
It was kind of like a bet onmyself.
But, being honest with yourself,if that's right for you,
because at the same time you canread a million Harvard business
review articles that say, hey,bet on yourself and go crazy but
for some people it's much morecomfortable to do something for
10 or 15 years in a stretch andif you know that and kind of set
that out as you get into theindustry, it can be, I think,
(36:35):
maybe more helpful and practicaland you feel more in control
when there's all these ups anddowns in sort of the space right
.
So I realize that's maybe alittle bit vague, but that's one
of the baselines that I put outof.
You know again, my friend thatcalled yesterday and I said,
well, three years ago, where didyou want to be?
And he's already well surpassedthat.
I said, okay, well, three yearsfrom now, where do you want to
(36:56):
be?
And the decision kind of madeitself.
Right.
It wasn't, it wasn't meadvocating for one or the other,
but he already kind of knew,you know what he wanted to do.
He's like, okay, well, can'tdecide for you.
But you know, if you've setthis goal for yourself, that can
be really, really instrumentalin making decisions and not
being sort of a passenger inyour own career journey.
(37:17):
You're the driver.
So you know, be clear andhonest with yourself as you get
into things and that way, asopportunities arise, you can
decide.
You know which way you're going, based on a plan.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
That's such a great point because so many people
asked me I had gone from Purityactually to an advertising
agency and then I ran severalhealthcare practices, high-end
cosmetic dermatology practicesout of Union Square, central
Park and the Hamptons and peoplewere like, how did you go from
ultra premium vodka andtechnology to you know, the
healthcare space and dermatology?
And I'm like, well, while itmight not have been, you know,
(37:55):
such a smooth topic transition,there's actually a lot of
connectivity and connectivetissue there that you can kind
of draw parallels to.
And if I hadn't had theopportunity to kind of do a lot
of the P&L work that I did atthe practice and hiring and
recruitment and managing peopleand you know that's something I
feel like was extremelyinstrumental for when I
(38:17):
eventually moved back intobeverage alcohol, I knew I
wanted to kind of come back.
I love the space.
So, coming back into MHW, I wasable to kind of pull on that and
bring it over to be able to,you know, create budgets and to
be able to hire different teamsand create revenue lines.
So I think you know people lookat, they might look at your
resume, for example, tate, andsee, like all these amazing
(38:37):
brands like Deep Eddy and youknow selling to Heaven Hill and
but when you go there at thetime like it wasn't where it was
when you sold it right, you hadto make it into that.
So I think it's really cool,kind of retroactively looking
back and seeing like how onething flows into the other, and
to be able to set that three tofive year goal, even if it's
something that's maybe a littlebit riskier or something that
(38:58):
doesn't line up withexpectations of what someone
might expect within the beveragealcohol space.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Oh yeah, my first supplier job.
My boss was fantastic and atrue mentor to me.
But my plan was I'll do thisfor about a year, year and a
half, and then I'm going to goback to the bar world, right?
What's it going to be like tohave a steady paycheck and work
for a real job kind of deal?
And he just laughed.
He's like, okay, well, if Ihave you for a year, then I'll
(39:26):
teach you what you can when weget there.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
We'll make the most out of it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Right.
And eight years later he saidare you still going to go back
to the bar world?
I thought I wish I had writtenthat down just for content.
So you know it does evolve overtime.
But again, I think clarifyingat least kind of where you see
yourself can also help whenthere's opportunities to engage
with different teams.
You know, I started after fromDeep Eddy Forward.
(39:50):
I always kind of said toeverybody, every CEO that I
worked for, I would love to sitin your seat one day, and that
opened up the conversation tosay, okay, well, what are the?
What are my weaknesses?
I need more exposure to finance, to marketing.
And then you can find out do Iactually want to do what I said
I did?
Or do I arrive and say, okay,nevermind, I never want to deal
(40:10):
with finance again, perfect,well then that kind of helps.
It helps kind of inform thejourney over time and remove
some of that what if?
Mystery like, well, what if Ihad done this?
It's okay, I spent time withthe finance team at a big
company and now I never want todo it again.
Great, now you know, or you'relike me or you arrive and you
know, engage with finance andmarketing.
The whole thing's fascinating.
It just feels like a big giantkind of game of Tetris which is
(40:37):
thrilling, and I love that sortof adventure every day of just
trying to kind of crack the codeand solve the puzzle and then
trying again the next day.
It's never boring, which Ireally enjoy.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
And you always have a retirement plan.
30 years from now, I want tosee Tate back behind the bar
slinging drinks.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
That's what it is.
Every year, I'm just puttingaway a couple of bucks for the
dream bar.
Sadly, as I said, my bartendingcareer was not illustrious.
Maybe beer tender, right, beerand shots that nobody makes a
better beer and a shot than me,so that's where I win.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Finally, a most critical question what is your
favorite we'll say adultbeverage?
What are you drinking thesedays?
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Tell you what, for me it's been a Negroni.
I used to be a big Manhattanguy and I think over the last
year and a half, since I had myfirst Negroni with the Purity
Navy Strength Gin, never lookedback.
So it's not even lately, that'sjust been.
The nice through line is afantastic equal parts.
You know one, one and oneNegroni, unstoppable, except for
(41:41):
when I get to the second oneand then I stop.
But that's my beverage rightnow and seems to be for the
future.
So I have not switched over tothe espresso martini train, but
maybe that'll be next.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Negronis in moderation.
That's the drink for Tate,exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
And speaking of espresso martinis, I just want
to let everyone know, if thisepisode does come out prior to
WSWA, which I believe it does,we will be at WSWA, access Live
2025 in Denver, colorado, fromFebruary 2nd to the 4th.
Please stop by our booth.
Taste Purity Vodka, purityCitrone and Purity Gin.
Purity is also taking over oneof the opening reception bars
the first evening and then onthe second evening there will be
(42:23):
a taste of industry tables.
You can get some samples ofsome of the wonderful selection
that Purity Distillery has.
So thanks, so much, tate.
Thank you for your partnershipand everything you have done for
MHW, and we look forward tomany fruitful years together.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Absolutely.
Thanks, bridget, appreciate it,jimmy.
Appreciate all the time Funconversation.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
All right.
Thanks again to Tate Trollstrupand thank you listeners for
joining us on the MHW Markpodcast and thanks again to
Bridget McCabe for joining me inhosting.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Thanks, jimmy, see you next time.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
This podcast is produced by me, Jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing.
We'll see you then, Cheers.
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