BlackwaterTM

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! We've been considering how to continue pentrating our market. We have a good relationship with our distributor and they did a great job out of the gates getting us into accounts. We have been on the market for about seven weeks and are in over 200 on and off premise locations. We're trying to focus now on volume in the locations we're in rather than just getting in front of consumers. That and penetrating the bar side of things better, as our distributor is stronger in restaurant/off-premise environments. We tend to over analyze a little bit, at times, so I thought we would throw this out to the group to see if it passes the blush test. Anyone have sales folks working for them on 100% commission? I know other industries do this, and in a down economy, thought we might be able to find a model that helped us establish a greater presence in certain types of accounts. My thought was to approach the distributor on this topic and suggest that if we could bring someone in, they could remove their commission percentage from their markup to help us make it work financially. One requirement would be that this person sell to new accounts, so they would be gaining accounts for lateral sales within, as well. Seems like a good quid pro quo to me (but I am not them!). Before suggesting this, I thought I would just take the temperature on the idea here. I don't want to approach them with it if there is no way the math would work for either party, too. What percentage do you give the sales person so that you aren't giving up too much revenue and they are in a position where they feel fairly compensated? For any deal to be a good one, it has to be good for both parties. Thanks everyone! And if you're in the mid-Atlantic, give Sloop Betty Vodka a try! Jon Cook - COO Blackwater Distilling www.sloopbetty.com www.facebook.com/sloopbetty @sloopbetty

I am on the lookout for a relatively inexpensive software/hardware suite that can help out with warehouse management. Need something that can help keep track of what we have on hand as well as connect a case with a production run should we run into and QA/QC issues downstream. It sure would be nice if it played well with Quickbooks and printed barcodes/tracking codes onto labels. Is anyone using anything they would recommend? Many thanks!!

Thanks for all the input, guys. We will post an 'after action' once we get through approval and let you all know how it winds up.

We have tried speaking to the point that there is inconsistency here, but that has a couple problems inherent. The first of which is that they seem to have a policy against discussing any other label. So far they have refused to discuss any with us. Also, how do you go about it without pointing the finger at someone else who could facee actual financial repercussions? Certainly don't want to put other folks at risk, it is a hard line to draw though. Thankfully the inconsistency seems fairly widespread, so I don't think the need exists to point out one brand or label.

Sorry - I wasn't saying the regs were murky at all, simply the application of them. It leads me to believe there are loop holes here. I guess it could just be inconsistent enforcement leaves some folks happier and some folks less so. Might just be on the losing end this time. Hoping for a loop hole though.

And in all fairness, we could arguably be part of the hindrance. We could just say yes ma'am, yes ma'am, yes ma'am and be done with it. But it's not in the best interest of the company or brand, no one else seems to be required to do it, so the inner monologue is "why me?". I think there is also a degree of skepticism after navigating the regulatory waters leading to this point. The first answer is not always correct, cannot be all the time in any organization.

We're doing Vodka right now - true enough on the it v. they. There is a they hindering the it, however We have been through chapter four, inside and out. Like any proprietary recipe, I would prefer not to have to put it on the label. Our rep yesterday told our president that each commodity in the bottle had to be on it with a percentage! I said "Bull____!"

Just going through the COLA process for the first time and are noticing that what feedback we are hearing from COLA we cannot see applied uniformly across the industry. So COLA is telling us we need to comply to the nth degree of detail on commodity statements and all the other bottle clutter yet I can go out, pick up a bottle of hangar 1 and see nothing referencing a base ingredient on there. Not like it is just them, virtually every bottle on the shelf is inconsistent with the written letter of the regs in some way. Does it just fall to who you get, luck of the draw, when you submit online? (if so, I think we got 'the new guy') I suppose regulation is regulation, but how do you apply it so sporadically? And its like quicksand, the more we struggle the worse it gets. Anyone have recommendations? I have read the other posts in here on COLA and we're going to go into the DC office for a face to face. It is hurting us from a time perspective because we're silk screening the label on the bottle, so every fail causes us 4-6 more weeks to resubmit, if we're lucky! Thanks everyone for your thoughts, Jon

Thanks - just sent a note out a moment ago.

Good afternoon, I am searching for a vendor of 30x44 ROPP tops - anyone using these or have a suggestion on where to look? Many thanks! Jon Cook

What was the phrase? No taxation without representation?

I think that the proposed bill should be written as discussed, but transmitted with an introductory letter that frames our argument from the perspective of competitive disadvantage. We can do this without pointing fingers as we are a 'fairly' young industry by claiming a lack of advocacy during the period when small brewers and vintners were lobbying for themselves. We should enjoy an equal status from a tax perspective with our lower production peers, and the federal government shouldn't impose more restrictions on one beverage alcohol producing group than another simply because of a historic lack of advocacy... Just my .02 USD

Blackwater Distilling, Inc. supports this proposal. Jon Cook

I've never done a poll before, hope this comes out OK. I know this one is kind of a crap shoot, considering the differing environs we all do business in, but I am curious about market penetration as a function of time. Everyone has an estimate of how much they think they can sell prior to embarking on their project. Everyone wants that to be a nice conservative number. What I am curious about is how long it has taken anyone currently in operation to meet their projected sales. Just trying to paint a good operating cost estimate for period from day one in business (after equipment install and prototype completion). Basically, start of commercial production to the day you started meeting or exceeding sales projections. Don't need to share anything proprietary! Thanks! Jon Cook BlackWater Distilling, Inc.

I'd like to think with precedent identified it should be an easier road, but we (ADI) would have to agree on a 'small producer' threshold in terms of production that would be on par with where it is set for the other manufacturers. This is one of those situations where you have to do all the work before proposing it if you have a chance of it going anywhere. Could you link to the small producer regs for the others?