Send us a text The impact of ready-to-drink beverages on the beverage alcohol landscape has been profound, and by all accounts, their influence is only set to increase. Over time, the category has gone from being on the fringes of drinking culture to guiding the core strategies of some of the world's largest beverage companies. So, what does this trend say about consumers in 2023 and beyond? And how will the industry react to its sustained success? The Park Street Insider Podcast welcomes Spiros...
Dec 20, 2023•39 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Send us a text If you're new to running a business, getting your books in order for year-end can seem like a sizable hurdle. But with the right organizational tools and know-how brand owners can cut down on the stress of this process. Maria Pearman, a CPA specializing in beverage alcohol, joins the Park Street Insider Podcast to shed some valuable insights and strategies that will help streamline the process of year-end accounting. Accounting Housekeeping - Pearman covers key aspects of staying ...
Nov 14, 2023•8 min•Season 4Ep. 20
Send us a text Few entrepreneurs have built a portfolio of brands quite like Alexandre Gabriel. His vision helped transform a once dormant cognac house into the leading global supplier that is Maison Ferrand today. Join Emily Pennington as she examines what it takes to build a leading global portfolio of alcohol brands through the eyes of one of its most beloved entrepreneurs. Gabriel will share key insights about: Balancing Priorities The ability to adapt to early missteps in brand building wil...
Oct 26, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Send us a text Very few categories have as much heritage and tradition as wine, and innovators in the space often fight an uphill battle. In this Essential Talk from Alison Luvera, Founder & CEO of Juliet Wine, she discusses the brand's journey to becoming an industry disruptor in boxed wine. She explains the brand's three pillars of marketing and how authenticity and intentionality lead to the brand's breakthrough success. Reversing Negative Stigmas- Alison discusses how the mission of Juil...
Oct 06, 2023•15 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Send us a text Many of the Park Street podcast guests extoll the importance of vision to the brand-building process. But before a vision can materialize, an understanding needs to form around the actual cost of goods that will be incurred during the production process. With this Essential Talk from Paul Monahan of Matchbook Distilling, a contract distillery based in Long Island, we're taking a granular look at the financial implications and timelines for producing a spirit. To give founders an e...
Sep 14, 2023•14 min•Season 4Ep. 17
Send us a text Across the industry, beverage alcohol brands are looking to sure up their long-term prospects by investing along the lines of high-growth categories. So when cult favorite whiskey brand Ole Smoky decided it was time to invest in their future, they didn't have to look much further than high-flying tequila maker Tanteo Spirits. On this episode, Neil Grosscup, President of Tanteo Spirits, joins the Park Street Insider Podcast to share his experience in the spirits industry and the de...
Aug 31, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Send us a text Consumers aren’t all alcohol connoisseurs; many rely on labels to inform their in-store purchase decisions. In this Essential Talk, Cole Clark, President of AmygdaLaunch, wants to help brands optimize their approach to labeling to help drive purchase decisions. Clark discusses the implications of label data and how beverage alcohol brands can interpret the findings. In this episode, you'll hear from: Cole Clark, President, AmygdaLaunch You'll hear key insights about: The key facto...
Aug 14, 2023•8 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Send us a text We're thrilled to release our Impact Investment seminar recorded at Bar Convent Brooklyn 2023. On the Park Street University stage, Emily Pennington sat down with some of the leading impact investors for a high-level discussion about what they're doing to make a positive social impact while boosting their bottom lines in the spirits industry. In this episode you'll hear from : Jomaree Pinkard, CEO & Managing Director, Pronghorn Kamuti Kiteme, Managing Director - Inclusive Inve...
Jul 20, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Send us a text Not many alcohol brands can claim to have taken a nearly 30-year hiatus from producing their spirit, only to revive it and build their business into a category leader. However, Tequila Fortaleza is not your average brand. It entered the U.S. market during the early stages of tequila's popularity boom and rapidly became one of the most celebrated agave spirit brands in the industry. In this episode, Park Street's Jesse Cortes sits down with Billy Erickson, the Sales and Marketing M...
Jul 05, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Send us a text The popularity boom of agave spirits over the past decade needs no introduction. The category saw a volume increase of 13% between 2021 and 2022 alone, according to IWSR, and is poised to take an ever-increasing share of the total spirits market. In the latest Essential Talks episode from the Park Street Insider Podcast, you'll hear from Carlos Ochoa, the COO of Mezcal El Silencio. In this talk, Ochoa will give listeners insight into what it's like to produce an agave spirit in Me...
Jun 15, 2023•8 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Send us a text Mergers and acquisition deals often make for good headlines, but to take a step back and look at the sum of these deals often reveals larger insights in the state of beverage alcohol. This perspective can prove useful in helping brands shape their own strategies. In this Essential Talk, Ryan Lake, Managing Director at Arlington Capital Advisors, provides an overview of the current trends driving M&A activity in beverage-alcohol. Lake closely examines the perspectives of strate...
May 31, 2023•15 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Send us a text For years rum has been forecasted to be the next spirit category to undergo a major renaissance, and only in the last few years did that seem like it could be true thanks to a handful of innovative premium rum producers. Marc Farrell, the founder, and CEO of Ten To One Rum, is among those producers seeking to elevate the category. When he founded Ten To One Rum in 2019 he leaned into his Caribbean heritage and the rich tradition of the spirit to create a premium and authentic bran...
May 16, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Send us a text When Charles Gordon tasked Lesley Gracie with creating the quintessential English gin in 1999, there were no constraints on the level of experimentation she could employ to get the job done. It was only with a true sense of curiosity that the brand's flagship gin came to market infused with cucumber and rose. Now a leader in the craft spirits movement, Hendrick's achieved its status by making this sense of curiosity and experimentation crucial to its brand identity. On this episod...
May 01, 2023•11 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Send us a text Lars Williams first started his distilling journey by experimenting with what he saw as a gin made of foraged pin needles. But when sharing the spirit with a friend they told him that without using juniper berries it couldn't really be called a gin. After more spirits testing, Lars would soon learn that his affinity for experimentation and unique ingredients would rule his brand out of traditional standards for spirits categories altogether. On this episode of the Park Street Insi...
Apr 20, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Send us a text Consolidation at the top of the distribution tier in recent years has resulted in higher levels of competition among smaller, independent distributors and suppliers alike. While at one time the U.S. market maintained around 3,500 wholesalers, this figure has been cut by more than two-thirds in the present day. Meanwhile, the number of wineries and craft distillers has exploded, narrowing the funnel through which suppliers can gain access to the second tier. With such high levels o...
Mar 31, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Send us a text The world of whiskey is expanding, and producers across the globe are coming up with new ways to innovate and drive the category forwards. With the demand for these spirits continuing to reach new heights, even established markets are finding ways to keep consumers engaged. On this episode of the Park Street Insider podcast, you'll be hearing from Stephen Gould, the founder, CEO, and master distiller of Golden Moon Distillery. Gould is a whiskey expert who travels the world, educa...
Mar 17, 2023•18 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Send us a text We get it, entering the U.S. market can feel like staring up at a looming mountain, but it doesn't have to. Robin Robinson, a brand consultant and spirits industry author, has been at the basecamp of the brand-building climb for years, giving brands the tools they need to succeed in the U.S. market. In this episode, Robinson brings his expertise in guiding small brands to U.S. market entry to the Park Street Insider Podcast. An industry veteran, Robinson will give you his tools an...
Feb 28, 2023•13 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Send us a text When Giuseppe Gallo founded Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto in 2016, he had dreams of creating a culturally iconic symbol for Italy, like Armani or Ferrari. It's this vision that guided his decision-making while he was building the brand and ultimately caught Pernod Ricard's eye in 2020. On this episode of the Park Street Insider Podcast, Emily Pennington and Gallo explore his journey in the alcohol business. They how his career in hospitality and experience as the global brand amb...
Feb 15, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Send us a text Introducing a beverage-alcohol brand to the U.S. market requires a nuanced understanding of the regulatory landscape. Each state in the U.S. regulates beverage alcohol in its own unique way and each major city in the U.S. has its own drinks culture. While your brand might have a high-quality product that's well differentiated, you won't make it very far without doing your homework. In a market that's as highly regulated and competitive as the U.S., having a targeted approach to ma...
Jan 30, 2023•11 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Send us a text On the Park Street Insider Podcast, we often explore the underlying ethos that guide a brand concept to concrete success. For Richard Betts, the founder and CEO of Casa Komos Brands Group, the brands he's developed throughout his career—including Betts & School, Astral Tequila, Sombra Mezcal, and Tequila Komos among others—have always lived at the intersection of enthusiasm and opportunity. On this episode, the Park Street Insider Podcast's Emily Pennington is joined by Betts ...
Jan 17, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Send us a text On this episode of the Park Street Insider Podcast, we're taking a dive into a trending category that’s been picking up steam over the last few years and now sits on the edge of mainstream consumer adoption. We’re talking of course about low-and-no alcohol. What was once a fringe category adopted by abstainers is slowly being incorporated into the weekly practices of alcoholic drinkers as well who are more concerned with what goes into their products and how they’re imbibing. We’r...
Dec 29, 2022•46 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Send us a text Any beverage alcohol brand owner developing a model for long-term growth is likely looking for more insight into the world of mergers and acquisitions. In this episode, Jeff Menashe, CEO of Demeter Advisory Group, takes you through the mindset of prospective buyers when sizing up acquisitions. Menashe explains why the traditional business model beverage alcohol brands have used to position themselves as an attractive investment may no longer apply in the current market. Instead, h...
Dec 08, 2022•11 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Send us a text Alfonso Morodo, the founder of Gin Mare and CEO at Vantguard, was quick to find success when he brought the brand to market in 2010. A well-differentiated product and an engaged founder team meant that Gin Mare had the foundations to make the brand a profitable venture but Morodo's team had another thing on their side: timing. In a period where gin was starting to blow up across Europe, Morodo saw an opportunity to leverage the buzz within the gin category by bringing a unique, su...
Nov 14, 2022•31 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Send us a text Club membership programs were once a boutique service for luxury products, but the rise of direct-to-consumer models now has many brands opting to implement club membership programs as a new way of engaging consumers. Enter, Theresa Dorr, a strategic relationship & business development leader known as "the Queen of Clubs" for her extensive experience setting up club membership programs across multiple industries. Through her work with Vinoshipper and Activ8, Dorr successfully ...
Nov 02, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Send us a text Impact investing is an investment strategy that is built on the intention to generate positive social or environmental impact through business investments. On this episode of the Park Street Insider podcast, Andrew Merinoff, the founder of DisPact Ventures and Co-founder and Chairman of Chinola Passion Fruit Liqueur, sits down with Emily Pennington to discuss the intersection of impact investing and brand development. He'll take listeners through his investment strategy and help t...
Sep 26, 2022•53 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Send us a text With as much as 50% of retail sales—both on and off-premise—influenced by the experience consumers have online, e-commerce marketing serves as a viable brand-building opportunity. In the latest edition of Park Street University's Essential Talks series, Andrea Sengara, Head of Marketing at Campari America, shares her best tips for brands to harness the power of e-commerce. Sengara delivers a comprehensive overview of the key pillars to building out a robust e-commerce marketing st...
Sep 08, 2022•14 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Send us a text On the latest episode of the Park Street Insider Podcast, Andres Correa sits down with Dave Smith, Head Distiller at St. George Spirits to break down his distillery's whiskey-making approach. Recorded just before the TTB issued its official definition of American Single Malt Whiskey, this episode traces the history of this category from the perspective of one of its earliest adopters: St. George Spirits. Smith offers his interpretation of what American Single malt should be and ho...
Aug 11, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Send us a text In this episode of the Park Street Insider Podcast, Heather Boyd, Managing Director of U.S. RTD at Beam Suntory, overviews the paradigm shifts that the ready-to-drink space is causing in the beverage alcohol industry. Boyd breaks down the major players and innovations driving the RTD segment, the guiding forces behind the trends in the category, and how emerging brands can navigate this new regulatory environment. She shares Beam Suntory's RTD innovation strategy from a legal comp...
Aug 01, 2022•13 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Send us a text In recent years, we’ve seen an increased focus on diversity conversations in the wider beverage alcohol industry, but have these calls for equality moved the needle from a sales and funding perspective? In this episode, a group of esteemed industry members tackle the impact of diversity in drinks, and how to continue to effectively market and share the stories of diverse founders. They cover the line between authentic marketing and cultural appropriation, creating transparency aro...
Jul 21, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Send us a text On the latest episode of the Park Street Insider Podcast, Emily Pennington sits down with Kat Hantas, Co-Founder of 21 Seeds Tequila, to discuss the brands meteoric rise and recent sale to Diageo. The two will dive into how Hantas used her personal experience to craft a brand that appealed to a previously overlooked consumer base. Listeners can expect to learn about 21 Seeds route to market strategy, how they utilized digital marketing to connect with their consumers and why their...
Jul 06, 2022•55 min•Season 3Ep. 5
