TetonDistillery

All of the news articles, related to craft distilleries, are positive. So whenever a new one opens and gets a few nice articles, it probably inspires 2-3 other entrepreneurs to investigate the business. When we start having a few articles about small distilleries failing, perhaps that would be a signal to others that the market is saturated with too many brands. However, small distilleries don't typically flame out with any big news release. They likely close quietly and no broader message is broadcast about the odds of failure to warn potential new entrants. The barriers to entry are low. I have visited a few distilleries that are amazing in their ingenuity for cobbling together their equipment so as to not need big bucks for a Carl still. One that I visited looked like a mad scientist operation on a shoestring budget, but he is producing Gold Quality spirits. They recently got a high scoring (over 90) Beverage Testing Institute medal. So based on my observations, I think we will definitely have over 1,000 craft distilleries operating. The only real question is how much of the overall market they will cumulatively capture. If we are one of the survivors and continue to grow, in a few years I plan to look for some barely used Carl stills going on the used market.

What do you guys think? Are there too many new distilleries forming?

What do you guys think? Are there too many new distilleries forming?

You guys crack me up with these names.

pogriallais, Some of the advice those experts in the UK have given you is not appropriate for a startup. 1) $5 million would be nice, but it is not even remotely necessary to get a new distillery off the ground. Planning for production of 50,000 cases per year from the start is crazy. You don't need to buy stills/fermenters on that scale in year one. It is easy to buy additional stills, fermenters and boilers as your demand increases. 2) Once you have a product that is in demand, even on a small scale, then it is easy to find additional capital from investors. If you start small and have a great product, then when you do need to sell equity to investors you will end up retaining a larger percentage of the company. Right now all you have is a paper business plan. Selling equity now will result in you losing the largest percentage of the company. You wrote that you have $400,000 to $500,000 in personal funds for this business. That is more than enough for a startup distillery. We did our distillery for roughly that amount and it included construction of a 2,400 sq ft building that could have a tower for our 32 ft column. My advice would be to start the company with only your personal funds and retain 100% of the equity for now. Once you have production and a good product, put it out there for competitions and try to get some recognition that it is high quality and in demand. If you really have something, then investors will be easy to find to fund expansion. And since you are already a proven product at that point, you will end up retaining a far larger percentage of the company. Just my opinion.

According to Cartman in SouthPark, Gingers have no souls. No Soul Beer. http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ginger_Kids

We cannot even do tastings or sales in our Idaho distillery. So no problem for us on this issue. We have to refer everyone to the local liquor store to purchase our vodka.

We had no prior professional distilling experience prior to opening our distillery in August 2012. We purchased a Hillbilly still to try experimental recipes with while waiting for our main column still to arrive. Three months later we got a gold medal with 94 points from the Beverage Testing Institute. Eight months after opening we got a Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. So I would say that deep experience prior to opening is not needed in order to produce high quality spirits. As the others have said, as an investor I would place a higher value on the ability to sell and get distributors. In this business there are very average spirits that sell very strongly due to image and marketing only.

Even better, Ursa Major is a well known constellation. Our lawyer specifically said that "Grand Teton", because it is a famous geographic feature known by everyone, that it cannot be trademarked by anyone for exclusive use. As a result, anyone can use it. Someone cannot use the EXACT same name. We would only be protected from someone trying to use Grand Teton Distillery or Grand Teton Vodka. We clearly got those first. But we have no right to object to anyone else using another form of Grand Teton, etc. Ursa Major is just too common and well known for Diageo to claim exclusive use of the word Ursa.

Ursa is a Latin word, meaning bear It is relatively common and there are plenty of other entities using the word Ursa. So I doubt anyone can copyright that particular word. Our vodka is called "Grand Teton Vodka". The owner of a private label factory made vodka called "Teton Glacier Vodka" contacted us very upset and threatened to sue us for using the word Teton. Then we pointed out that there are about 50 businesses in the region that also use "Grand Teton" in their name. Grand Teton Brewery, Grand Teton Plumbing, Grand Teton etc etc. You cannot trademark exclusive use of a geographical feature or common word. The other problem with his claim is that mostly his vodka is known as "Glacier Vodka". In fact, that was his website address. www.glaciervodka.com Nobody actually called his vodka "Teton" Glacier Vodka. All of the marketing and website stuff omits the work Teton. So he really was stretching to make that sort of claim. You can see on the image of his website that "Teton" is really small. The word that they focus on is Glacier Vodka as their brand. Ursa would seem to me to be too common for one company to trademark every use of the word and prevent others from using it. Just my opinion.

The Modern Distiller forum is also a good resource for at home "Do It Yourself" scale distilling. That forum might be a better source of info. http://forum.moderndistiller.com/

Bottling is the main variable if you don't have a bottling machine. You will likely have a few part-time employees that work only when you have enough product ready. You can be distilling all week, then only need 1-2 days for the bottlers to use up all your product in the filling process.

The WSWA convention is next week in Orlando. Wine & Spirits Wholesales of America http://www.wswa.org/meetings.php?EventID=10 Nightclub and Bar show is in Vegas. http://www.ncbshow.com/ We are not attending, but after reading about them, it prompted me to do some research. Which conventions or trade shows do you guys find worthwhile to attend each year?

I think one of the most cost effective marketing ideas was entering the various spirits competitions. Beverage Testing Institute, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Wine Enthusiast, etc. Getting positive reviews of your spirits can lead to plenty of free additional advertising. After we scored 94 points at Beverage Testing Institute, that gave local news media a reason to write a series of articles about us. http://www.tetonvodka.com/page/news So it was a free round of local PR. We heard that many of the liquor stores carrying our vodka sold out in the areas where those news sources have their readers. The cost to enter most of these competitions is only $300 to $400.

Here are some photos of the inside of our distillery with our setup for making potato vodka. http://www.tetonvodka.com/page/the-distillery http://www.tetonvodka.com/photo http://www.distillerycollege.com/Slide-Show.html

Hello everyone. Just registered on the website. www.tetonvodka.com Grand Teton Vodka distillery is located in Teton Valley, Idaho, on the west side of the Tetons, across the pass from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We are on Highway 33 North of Driggs, Idaho, which is part of a 260 mile scenic drive, the Yellowstone-Teton Loop. According to National Geographic it is one of the ten most scenic drives in the West.