Happy Tuesday everyone: here’s the summary of the latest and greatest in the craft and emerging spirits world.
Two biggest stories are Endless West’s big funding and the US Treasury anti-trust report targeting major companies in the alcohol space. Endless West made a splash a few years ago by using labs and chemistry to replicate the molecular structure of prestigious spirits (aka tastes like Pappy’s, but it’s made using NGS and highly complex flavors). The US Treasury is highlighting the disparity in the industry of a booming number of small and medium spirits suppliers vs a highly concentrated level of distributors. While they didn’t recommend breaking up current corporations, they did put the pressure on the TTB and DOJ to put more investigation on M&As (both horizontal and vertical mergers). How will this play out in the industry going forward? Will we see less M&A or will we still see the status quo?
In other compliance news, Iowa, Arizona, and Rhode Island are all working to make spirits more accessible through DTC, decreased taxes, and permanent to-go. Continued liberalization of spirits legalization get us closer and closer to an even playing field among other alcohols and even non-alcoholic drinks, but how can craft spirits be ready to capitalize on the ever-evolving legal map?
Lots of great stories and press releases this week too. Du Nord is exploding and building a new facility. Whipshots is getting a more aggressive focus in line with RNDC. Legal fight between Mason Dixon Distillery and Drake’s Organic Spirits. And more!
And now, the news…