Park Street Insider Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In the early days of laying the groundwork for her brand, Buzzballz, Merrilee Kick received a call from a distributor who informed her that, despite having a contract in place, they would be canceling their order, asserting that ready-to-drink products were a "fad."  In 2024 it's almost impossible to imagine that her now iconic brand was ever in such a position, but...

Send us Fan Mail 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 beyon...

Send us Fan Mail 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 stre...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 intentionalit...

Send us Fan Mail 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 takin...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Tant...

Send us Fan Mail 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 ep...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 ind...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Sil...

Send us Fan Mail 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 curren...

Send us Fan Mail 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 leane...

Send us Fan Mail 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 achieve...

Send us Fan Mail 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 br...

Send us Fan Mail 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, n...

Send us Fan Mail 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,...

Send us Fan Mail 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....

Send us Fan Mail 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 explo...

Send us Fan Mail 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 you...

Send us Fan Mail 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 enthusi...

Send us Fan Mail  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 alcohol...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 ac...

Send us Fan Mail 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 cl...