Revolutionizing Spirits with Guillaume Cuvelier - 002

Dive into the world of beverage alcohol branding and market innovation with our latest episode, featuring the industry trailblazer, Guillaume Cuvelier. As the driving force behind powerhouse brands like Svedka, Aviation Gin, and Davos Brands—and co-owner of Cuvelier Los Andes—Guillaume’s contributions to the world of alcohol are nothing short of iconic.

Hosted by Brandon Amoroso, founder and President of Electriq, this episode is a deep dive into Guillaume's illustrious journey. He shares the origins and aspirations behind the birth of Svedka and how, with innovative branding strategies, they managed to stand out and redefine the vodka marketplace. It's a tale of passion, intuition, and disruptive thinking.

One of the episode's highlights is the exploration of the burgeoning private label market, especially for industry titans like Amazon and Target. Guillaume and Brandon delve into the strategies vodka brands employ, especially in a market often steered by competitive pricing. From this, they transition into the art and science behind effective ad campaigns, shedding light on what truly resonates with audiences today.

A focal point of the conversation revolves around celebrity partnerships. As someone who's leveraged star power to enhance brand visibility, Guillaume unveils the dynamics of celebrity endorsements and how they can propel a brand into the limelight. He emphasizes the crucial role of branding in building enduring relationships with consumers, discussing its power to foster loyalty and drive brand recognition.

As the conversation progresses, both host and guest turn their attention to the evolving nature of branding, especially in the face of the TikTok generation. Understanding how Gen Z and young millennials engage with alcohol brands, their unique preferences, and the platforms they frequent offers invaluable insights into the future of alcohol marketing.

Transcript

Brandon Amoroso: 0:10

Hey everyone, thank you for listening to the drinkscom podcast the business of online alcohol. I'm your host, brandon Amoroso, and today I'm talking with Guillaume Cuvollier, founder of Svedka Aviation Gin Davos Brands and also the co-owner of Cuvollier Los Andes. Thank you so much for coming on the show and I hope I pronounced all those names right. You did great.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 0:32

French 101,. Perfect Nice to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Brandon Amoroso: 0:39

Of course. Thanks for coming on. Before we hop into some of the topics that we want to cover today, could you just give everybody who's listening a quick background and an intro on yourself?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 0:51

Yes, of course. Well, I've been in the business pretty much all my life, all my career. I started actually working for Moet Hennessy in New York in the mid-80s and then discovered the. I was in sales and so discovering account work and retail work and really have to spend a lot of time learning about product wine, champagne, cognac. Obviously with Hennessy it's been three, four years that we're sort of I hadn't planned on that, it just so happened that I was in New York just to arrive from Paris looking for a job and they were looking for a French sales guy. Everything is in timing and so I was the right there at the right place and really enjoyed. I didn't think about it at first but then when I got into it, I just you know hard not to love to sell wine and spirits and especially high-end products, so it was fun. And then, after a quick two years in business school, I went to work for Hennessy in Cognac, where I was based there in France but was in charge of the North American market, so worked there for three, four years to really look at a high-level brand management, understanding market trends and getting a really elevated view on the market dynamics and as a result of that. So this is like the mid-90s. And so I was Hennessy Cognac and obviously with the other more Hennessy brand, very involved with champagne.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 2:42

But what was clear was the rise of vodka at that time, and absolute was sort of you know, there was nothing stopping the brand, who had sort of you know, emerged as a premium branded vodka, which nobody had done before Before. Vodka was vodka, was vodka the biggest volume vodka back then it still is. Well, not anymore. Actually it was Smirnov, and Smirnov was not really a brand, it was just a vodka, eight bucks of vodka. And so absolutely changed the game. And frankly, I looked around and none of the big strategic companies in those days were doing anything about it, including more at Hennessy.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 3:30

So, long story short, I started to think about that, met a partner in Belgium actually, and who was in the ethanol business, so on the industrial part of the alcohol world and trading both literally of industrial fuel ethanol and pharmaceutical ethanol, and was very interested in getting into the drinks business. So I said, you know, drink business, if we want to do anything now it's vodka, and if you could make it from Sweden, that would be, you know, a home run. And I was kind of saying that as a joke, because you know, absolutely at that time was owned by the Swedish monopoly, the Swedish government. So I thought, you know, I knew there was a, you know, nobody else could really produce alcohol, I mean vodka or any other spirits in Sweden. And it just so happened that it was the year or the year later after, where you know, sweden joined the European Union and as a condition had to deregulate any sorts of monopolies, including the alcohol monopoly. So we were literally first into the market, freshly deregulated, to take advantage of that change and made a deal with an amazing distiller in the heart of Sweden who was supplying you know, the local Swedish market and then basically, you know, made a deal to have the export rights on that vodka and eventually that became Zvetka. You know, it took obviously I'm just making it short here, but it took a couple of years to get there. And actually, I mean, you know, when you start a business you always say you know you have to have, you always have to have a plan B. Because actually, believe it or not, zvetka was actually a plan B. Plan A was not to do a branded vodka, was to do a private label vodka.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 5:33

I was living in Paris and the thought was just to go see the Safeway, the Walgreens at that time, all the grocery chains and chains in the US to provide them with a premium imported Swedish vodka that would be more expensive than what they had as a generic label, but better quality and allow them to, you know, make money for one thing and also elevate their image, as you know, by, you know, offering a store name, a store brand names, you know, premium product, still at a discount from the absolutes of the world, but nonetheless, you know, definitely better than what you know, the local vodka that they had. And I went around and I had, you know, zero out of 20 buyers and I couldn't get anyone to bite, I mean, or very little. A lot of time the buyers didn't know much about the liquor business or they changed. I mean, you know all the usual stuff. But really I was stunned because, you know, I actually got the idea by, you know, visiting the UK market where that practice of selling premium private label was already in place and successful, and I thought well, you know, it should work in the US. Well, it didn't, at least at that time Anyway.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 6:55

So eventually plan B was to start the brand. But obviously stunning a brand means you have to create everything and then you have to, you have to, you know, build distribution, which is, you know, a pretty, pretty tough job. But you know I was ready, obviously, to do it. I was not going to give up because plan A didn't work Off. We are creating Zvetka, the packaging, and then moving back to New York I was in 98 to launch it and really build the distribution. So this is kind of the genesis of how I got from, you know, starting in the business to launching Zvetka.

Brandon Amoroso: 7:39

I feel like that's pretty interesting because it seems like private label is now all the rage, at least in the market right now. When it comes to other alcohol, which is products in general, you see companies like Amazon or Target and they have private label everything for your staple goods for sure, I mean it's, it's growing in every category, not just liquor.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 7:59

There's no question that you know those chains are, as as for as, more powerful as they get the chat, trying to get you know, capitalize on their you know, on their brand, and try to do you to just increase their you know presents awareness and obviously, but at the end of the day, you know it still requires brand, because brands, you know, usually all the innovators, the other one who create, who come up with with you know, things that are not been seen or drunk, in this case, before, and they they kind of the market drivers and then, and it kind of the fact that they are private level keeps pushing brand makers or brand builders like me to keep going forward and innovating, and that's a fun part.

Brandon Amoroso: 8:49

You start some, some very successful brands, and we don't have enough time here for you to walk us through the entire journey of creating Svetka, but maybe you should write a book one day. And what would?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 9:00

you say, I actually started to write a book. I don't know if I'll finish it because it is a lot harder than I thought, takes a while, but it's fun, it's fun. Maybe one day. I'm kind of halfway through, so.

Brandon Amoroso: 9:12

Are you? Are you personally writing it or you like voice?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 9:16

No, no, I am. Yeah, I'm doing the old fashioned way because you know it. It sort of helps juggle my memory on on stuff, and so it's actually. It's a great exercise. It just have to find it's finding the time to do it, because when you write you actually has to really stop doing anything else, put yourself in a place where nobody bothers you, and then you can really dive into your story.

Brandon Amoroso: 9:38

And that's really hard to do when we have busy lives and you know, going around so Is just a matter of, like you know, stepping out of the world a little bit to do this very hard in today's day and age to step out and not have people bother you, but what would you say are like the top three things along your journey of creating Svetka that made it as successful as it as it is?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 10:07

So well. First of all, the positioning of the brand was a man, was key obviously into its early success, you know, at that time. So we have to go. So go back a little bit in time and I don't want to make you know too much of a history lesson on the market, but back in the late nineties, so absolutely still raining strong, and then there was the emergence of, you know, a new category of premium vodka. This, I would say the super premium, was a lounge of belvedere, kettle one and and and, as I was launching great goose in ninety eight, so all those brand took the plate. The absolute playbook which, when which said, okay, you know, seven of these are eight, nine dollars, you know, absolute, when it launched in the eighties, was was, you know, double, sixteen, seventeen dollars. And then those newcomers, the belvedere, and then, and great goose, you know, went all the way to thirty dollars.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 11:04

So there's like an inflation, if you will, on, you know, on vodka brand price. That was, you know, quite, quite impressive and the vodka I had actually was, was at that level of quality because of this killer in Sweden, was amazing and I thought, you know, sort of at the beginning of a sort of dragged into that. Okay, this is the way the market is going. Then I stopped and I thought, wait a minute. You know, ninety percent of the volume at that time was at the vote at the smear off and all the generic brand you mentioned that there was, you know, ninety percent of the market was ten dollars a bottle and less. And so I thought, wait, and then absolutely that sixteen, sixteen, seventeen and then between ten and absolute ten dollars and seventeen dollars. There was just a couple of brand there was sky was there and in Finlandia. But this was kind of a get a price gap.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 12:00

So I thought, if I could offer, you know, a really super premium vodka from Sweden, you know, at a you know, eleven, ninety, nine, twelve, ninety, nine, then I can sort of make that reachable for the smear off drinker, like, like for a couple of dollars. Suddenly you get an imported brand which in those days was, was a key selling point not anymore, but you know, now it's all made in America, but, but back then imported means luxury, means, you know, high value, and so. So I decided to completely shift my positioning, you know, as we were designing the strategy, and really be that sort of accessible premium vodka for everyone. So I was getting on both phone because the smear off we're good. You know I'm great for a couple of bucks, the smear off drinkers, and at the same time, the absolute drinkers. We're saying, oh my god, another great vodka from Sweden for, you know, four or five dollars less, you know. And so that was sort of like the value proposition. That was the first one and I got us, got the brand really quickly out of the gate, you know, in distribution, in, in, in many, in most states, in four or five years.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 13:16

Then the second at some point where we got to half a million cases, I would say five, six hundred thousand cases, I realized that if I wanted to continue to on that tragic growth trajectory, I needed to speak up with the consumer, build awareness and basically get into the advertising business. And so this is when we created the first, you know so that campaign, national campaign, and I was sort of like, okay, this is how would you know? I wasn't sure I wanted to, I was actually sure I didn't want to. You know, copy my competition, which mostly talked about heritage, tradition, you know history, recipes, you know how many million times they were distilled. And I was thinking, you know, my audience, my market, are twenty five year old folks. You know they are twenty five thirty, all young, professional. In this people talk about the present and a lot about the future, and that's where the idea of making is that the number one vodka in the future Came up. So with that we, you know, came out.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 14:19

Then the creative folks got crazy, built a robot which a lot of people have seen on our ads, and that robot was actually the same guy, hollywood, actually robot builder, the terminator. I said less love, that our robot is going to be, fun, is going to be, she's going to be sexy, she's going to be hurting. You know we want to friendly robots for this campaign and we sort of put it, you know, you know this is a 2004 or five. And we said, you know, we were claiming that's, that guy became the number one vodka in two thousand thirty three and so, and so we were claiming a lot of things.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 15:01

You know about that, the year two thousand thirty three, about you know, we took political views, we social views, cultural views on, you know, and sort of of the moment back, so the two thousand four five Era, but sort of trying to create what it would be, you know, in in twenty, thirty years later and so. So the campaign got a lot of attention, was certainly very impactful, very different than any other vodka's out there, made everybody laugh and, as a result, remember the brand. So it was a time when you could have fun with, with vodka and with vodka brands that you know, the, the, the category reached a maturity level that was just good enough to play a little bit and we totally see that opportunity. So these are sort of the two, you know. You know, pivot moment for the brand. The first part was, you know, value creation. The second part, you know, the very differentiated and impactful relevant marketing campaign.

Brandon Amoroso: 16:12

No, that makes a lot of sense. And then I know, like, as you progressed in your career and then moved on to to start aviation gin, you obviously had a celebrity partner with that in, in Ryan Reynolds, which it wasn't the case with with with Fedca, the brand building exercise there wasn't in. So what was, I guess, the decision behind that and what were some of the differences and nuances between doing it with somebody with a reach and sort of stature like him, versus from the ground up with with Fedca?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 16:48

You know, it's amazing how the world has changed and when you ask that question. So what I just described as Fedca was between 2004 and 2008,. Roughly, we sold in 2007, but but you know that was the year of the campaign. You fast forward to the mid 2015,. You know, and suddenly you know there's very little. You know, newspaper out of Vanity Fair, full color page out it's has shifted to social social media, digital, youtube.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 17:24

I mean, it was just like it happened so quickly and and and a lot of us, you know marketers, were figuring out. It was the year we're like, ok, this is changing and we know, nobody knew actually how to really do it. It was like a lot of trying and failing and trying and little success. But it was a and I was on the celebrity front at that time. We were not looking actually to. It was not part of our plan to have a celebrity involved with the aviation. We were just the Hollywood called, basically, and they said you know, we'd love to get involved with your brand. We love that. You know, aviation, the gym, and and and the group of Hollywood people that reached out to us introduced us to Ryan and at first, to be honest, we were I was like a little skeptical because, you know, at that time, beside a couple of exception you know the Cosmigos and Clooney and and you know Cyrock you know there was not many successes, it was more of a graveyard of celebrities. And so it's like you know, you know, I don't know, I don't know, and then we met Ryan and I have to say we hit it off right away. I mean super nice, funny, smart. You know it was a.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 18:43

We clearly had somebody who was ready to engage and partner in a real way, not just being the face of the brand but being a true working partner to help us build the brand. And you know he didn't have many engagement. Actually not, he had no commercial commitment at that time. Maybe it was one exception, but but he was very minor. And so so suddenly we sort of like, you know, oh my God, you know, maybe maybe we should, we should think seriously about this. And then you know he had at that time, you know, something like 30 or 35 million followers on this, on the, you know, on social, so all these things kind of like he certainly sort of, you know, made a lot of sense. And and so, you know, long story short, we. You know he joined a place. He was a gin drinker, by the way. I forgot to mention that he's he loves gin, so all this kind of lined up, you know?

Brandon Amoroso: 19:34

yeah, well, I just laugh at that because you would think that that would have to be like the bare minimum requirement for starting a brand. But I guarantee you there's plenty of celebrity brands out there where they never even use the product.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 19:48

No, no, I mean, Iran was really. You know he loves gin, so so it's sort of like it really lined up a lot very well. And then and then we, you know, so we signed up, we announced the deal and and, frankly, it was an instant success. I mean, our gross rate, you know, could rupled overnight, you know, just when we announced the partnership and and so, and the bonus for us in that, because I only knew Ryan as an actor, I didn't realize he was a producer and also a screenwriter, that you know, he was really the guy behind Deadpool Deadpool one, Deadpool Deadpool two Sorry, he's shooting that pull three, I think, right now but so very creative writer. And so he became our creative director, basically coming up with ideas to shoot, you know call, I mean to produce content.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 20:44

And it was a very, you know, it was him, his creative director, George Dewey, and and us, so very small group of people involved very nimble, very fast and sort of in that process, not only we had fun, but that led us to the infamous Peloton ad, which I don't know if you remember or if you've seen it, but in December 2019, Peloton did a Christmas campaign to promote their bike there, you know, the indoor stationary bike and there was a husband basically given giving his wife a Peloton bike and it just went viral very negatively for Peloton and it was really like the news, the social news, the social moment, the cultural moment of the, of the of the pre Christmas of that year. And so Ryan and George really saw that and leverage that by creating an ad with the wife who was sort of the victim of the of the ad and and made it really funny. It took I remember he took Ryan three calls. She was actually so embarrassed about the whole fiasco with Peloton she wanted to hide or crawl in her bed or disappear. So in Iran, you know, from an actor to another actor managed to convince her to you know that it'd be a good thing for her and so so she agreed and we, we produced that.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 22:11

You know that that that clip, that is just you know, became viral, you know, instantly, because it was sort of. You know we did that in one week I mean between the virality, you know, when things start to pick up on the Peloton front to the moment where we ran at the idea, wrote the script, he assembled the production team, I mean literally it was a week, and then we, we, we released it like the following weekend.

Brandon Amoroso: 22:36

So it was, it was crazy, crazy moment, but so yeah that speed to market, though, to be able to capitalize on the virality of the Peloton campaign. I think is is crucial. I mean, if you, if you had launched it even a month after that, then it wouldn't have had the same effect as it was able to, because you did it so quickly.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 22:57

Yeah, and I tell you that was, that was Ryan's genius. And and we, you know, we all marketers, learn a lesson there of, you know, being, of having the really the good, you know, a finger on the pulse of culture and being able to act on it really quickly and very well, I mean, because it's one thing to see it, but then you have to do something about it, execute and execute well, and not only quickly but well. And so that was sort of like, you know, at least in liquor for sure, in, in, in, in marketing liquor. For you know it was definitely a big moment and and so and we had fun on the way.

Brandon Amoroso: 23:39

Obviously this, which is the best part, yeah, it feels like, and correct me if I'm wrong here but the once you've reached a threshold for product quality Like, let's say you have ten brands, they're all the same type of gin or they're all the same type of vodka in terms of quality and perceived value it really comes down to the branding and the marketing and the relationship building with customers that Can separate somebody from having a failed gin company and somebody having a super successful one, like, like aviation.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 24:13

Right, yeah, well, I mean yes and no, I think you need to wait. I mean, at least in my case, I always try to bring you know something in. You know, like with that guy we were bring a super premium quality vodka at a price that that you know, I would say the mass market, you know, could, could, could, buy, you know. So that was there was initially a value proposition, but it was like, you know, offering, you know it was the error of she, you know she, she Giving access to you know, to, to to shake brand for for affordable price, is aviation. What attracted us to the brand is the, the that's free. Brian went with Brian. So when we bought it is the fact that he was an American style gin. It was a gin that was definitely, you know, not the London dry heavy journey per centric type of gin. Like you know, the beef eaters and the and the tachy of the world, we. It was an American style. It was a lot less still some Jennifer, but a lot less, and the focus on all the botanicals in, you know, and a lot of citrus in this. So it was sort of a milder, even though the alcohol level was the same. It was. It was a milder tasting gin. It was you know less. It was a lot less, jennifer.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 25:32

So that was kind of like the, the product differentiation, and I think you know every marketer, every brand builders should find that sort of unique. You don't have to be completely different, but you need to have something that that that is a point of interest in the, you know, a point of differentiation in the actual product itself. Now, obviously, the rest, the packaging, the way you tell the story, etc. Etc. Is, you know, very critical. There's no question that Sorry, I'm just turning that off because I have mixed.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 26:11

You know you need, obviously, you need to build a story around that, just to to get people's attention, because then you're finding on the shelf, so you need to be visible with a great packaging, need to stand out, and then when people engage in the brand you got, you want to tell the story. That's right. I've heard that it's that's fun, exciting, that really get them To sort of emotionally, you know, get attracted by the brand. So that's a multiple step, but I think the product is very important. You just can't, can't do really another. Me too, at least in my book, I wouldn't, I wouldn't think about it.

Brandon Amoroso: 26:47

Well, now you're you're embarking on this new project with Blake Lively and the Betty Buzz product. How are you thinking about marketing? And in a much more digital era, especially with the adoption and rise of e-commerce In 2023 versus Svetka in the early 2000s, and even a aviation in 2019? What are some of the different ways you're thinking about building that brand versus the two prior?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 27:19

So yeah, just so our listener can can they might not be aware because this is not allowed. First time I stepped out of alcohol and this is a non-alcoholic range of mixes and sodas. It's called Betty Buzz Betty's name, after Blake Lively's grandmother and daughter one of our daughters is first name is Betty and wanted to Really capitalize on the growing premium soda and premium mixer market and in the sense that you know, you know, you know there's a bit of a fatigue into you know the usual the Pepsi coke and the fountain and the and the Shrebs and so on, and there's clearly and we see them the market every day and avalanche of new product product being released to try to figure out the next generation of sodas. And we thought, you know, that would be an interesting space to get involved and design something. You know we actually the idea started with Ryan and we started to build it and eventually, as we were working on the packaging and the branding, we realize you know, actually Blake would it's really what you know she would she would enjoy getting involved with as a partner and you know, and so she jumped in. She love the idea and then got really involved Into the product development.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 28:48

But when I say, very involved. She was Deep into product development to the to actually, you know, evaluating the bubble size, you know she was very specific about you know she wanted a tiny bubbles, a lot of tiny bubbles, not a few big ones, but very tiny bubbles. It matters. I totally agree. I love also when she said that of course you know you have, you need that and also the flavors very Discipline about. You know, real juice, natural, real flavor, I mean juice and and and not, you know, not mix things up without anything artificial. So she, you know she, by the way, she's a foodie, she loves to cook and and as a great palette, very discerning palette. So that was actually a lot of fun because we, you know I'm also, part of my life is in wine and so I see, you know I deal with some of years and winemakers, you know, on a regular basis, people who are really have a very amazing palettes and I gotta say, you know, blake Blake is a incredibly discerning palettes so it's been fun to work with her on that. So we will launch with five flavors we're working on new ones as we speak to launch next year and definitely a challenge on our end on the distribution part because obviously it's not alcohol, so it's a little different than Then. You know the liquor distribution network but but nonetheless, you know very, very, very good reception on the brand and a heavy dose of.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 30:23

You know digital marketing and and and the e-commerce has played a huge part into the launch of the other product. Because you know when you, when you, especially when you're new, it's great to be able to sell online. You know because you can get to know your customer right away and see, you know who you're talking to, who's buying the brand, and you know and get some immediate feedback, which I think that in liquor we are just discovering now. Because you know, with all the regulation, it's been really hard to sell alcohol online and and if you know there are ways now, when you can, you know where this is happening and you can collect, you know, primary data and and really get to know your market a lot better, test stuff before doing a national launch and and do a lot of things that you know. That helps, you know, fine tune our marketing plan. So that's, that's super exciting.

Brandon Amoroso: 31:21

Well, I think that's a great segue into into Speak Easy and, uh, I mean invested in in in the round earlier this year, touching on, you know, alcohol and making it easier to sell online. Um, and obviously drinks has a partnership with Speak Easy to power their taxing compliance on their on their Shopify storefronts. But I guess, for everybody listening, just a quick background on on Speak Easy, but then even more so, why did you invest in them? And like, why are you, uh, obviously bullish on e-commerce alcohol in the U S Right?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 31:57

Well, uh, you know the, the Speak Easy is not the first one to to offer a, you know, an, e-commerce platform for liquor brands, but it's the first one that is not necessarily relying, uh on on your distribution. And so, if you look at all the, the early player, or the big player, the, the, the, the, the drizzlies of the world, or bar cart, um, and then there's many others, uh, you know they, they rely on on on existing distribution. Uh, speak Easy, you know, is more on the on the retail partnership, you know warehouse model, so you can, you could actually, uh, you don't have to have distribution, hey, and, uh, you can. So you can. You know, when you launch a brand, you could, you could be sort of national immediately, because, well, it's not, they can't really sell to every state, but I think, uh, last count, they could, they could ship liquor brands to 34 states, um, and, and all the big ones. So, so that was a. It's a great way, as you launch a new brand, to be available everywhere and read again back to primary data and knowing your market and testing things.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 33:06

But not only that. That. You could also do. You can include merch, you can do special packaging. You could do a lot. You can offer a lot of things. That that you know. If you were relying on the regular retail network, uh, you know that that is not possible. I mean, if you order a bottle of Zvetka through this, you're gonna have a bottle of Zvetka that's on the shelf. Basically, if you were, you know, buying it from, from Speak Easy, and it would be, you know, packaged with I don't know another, another product, or always with glasses or you know, or a special edition, special packaging, um, you know, you could buy it on Speak Easy because it doesn't have to be that available nationally.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 33:45

Now it goes through the three tier system. It has a, you know, we, we the supplier sells to a distributor. In the case of Speak Easy, they started in California, so it goes through a California distributor who sells to a local retailer who is Speak Easy's partner, into that, into that, uh, in that process, and so so it goes through the regular, you know, three tier and but it allows a lot of flexibility into the way you, you could sell online and then, uh, selling online allow, you know meaning, you know that offering is sits on the on the brand owners website, so you sort of it's, it's, it's a brand, own, you know store, if you will. Uh, it's a store front really, and then that goes through the retailer, the local retailer. But I understand now they have like, uh, the opening a bunch of warehouse across the country.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 34:37

I don't remember all the. I know there's one in DC, there's one in in Florida opening it now, and I know there's other plans in Illinois, texas and so on. So it's very exciting, I think. I know I'm not a tech guy, but but I, I'm, I'm a user, I'm a tech user and when I, when I see you know a good user experience and I can understand the simplicity of the system, to me that's like you know worse, um, investing in this case.

Brandon Amoroso: 35:06

Yeah, and the ability to actually get all that data now from your customers that you as a brand historically haven't been able to have access to, and I think at least what we, what we've seen, is offering very limited edition or limited production. Uh, offerings for the brand enthusiast is a great way to build more like customer loyalty, but there's certain things that you would never reach the quantity or scale to be able to master, distribute in the U? S, but you can stand it up on your speakeasy storefront and then have a really cool and unique offering for your like VIP customers that you wouldn't be able to have historically. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 35:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Brandon Amoroso: 35:45

Yeah.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 35:46

Absolutely yeah. So yeah, no, I'm super excited by the this platform, and drinks involvement is going to give it a booster, and that's quite technical, so don't ask me too many questions on that, but it sounded good when I heard it. I can't repeat what I heard, though.

Brandon Amoroso: 36:06

It's crazy how much nuance there is in all the rules and regulations, down to the zip code in the US and the tech that speak easy and companies like drinks that have been able to build to help enable brands and the like to be able to actually go direct to consumer in comparable ways that you would be able to with, like, a non-alcoholic product, like shoes or coffee. It's been really awesome to see, because there's so much red tape around, what you can do and cannot do in this industry?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 36:44

Absolutely yeah.

Brandon Amoroso: 36:46

But is there anything else that you're excited about over the next five, 10 years here in the industry?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 36:52

Oh boy, I love the business. So, yes, I'm excited to, you know what's coming. I mean, what, you know, what excites me the most, and especially in the US, is, you know, consumers are always willing to try stuff, to explore the new, new taste, new brands, new concepts, and so this is dynamic. And when you look at the marketplace, people taste change. I mean, you know, I was talking about Zvetka, absolute, you know, 25 years ago. You know, the new vodka is tequila, you know, and then back then, you could not, you know, give away a bottle of whiskey was really, I mean, whiskey was not doing well. Now these are reburse of whiskey.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 37:37

So there are those huge, you know, cycles that are taking place, which, you know, which I find very exciting because when you are, you know, sitting, like me, you know, in the market, you can see the beginning, you know, and you can capitalize on it and you know, and that's, it's a very, it offers a lot of dynamic, you know, in the marketplace.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 37:59

And then, additionally, when you know there is a rise of, you know, rtds and and the new, you know, no, no, low alcohol business, which is also fascinating because it's sort of like trying to, you know, address a big chunk of the market which is not happy with just beer and looking for, you know, low or no alcohol alternatives which until recently was not just not, you know, was not there. So so there's this kind of rush into that, that new space that is super exciting and evolve, evolving very quickly. I mean, you know, it's like quite, quite impressive to see how, you know, the leading brand is not only the they've reached an amazing result but but at the same time, they had to reformulate to keep up with the market demand. So it's, it's happening fast, but I think that's it's there to stay and and and I'm excited to to you know, hopefully maybe one day part into it.

Brandon Amoroso: 39:02

Yeah, it's been fascinating to watch friends and family around my age and younger and like what their consumption behavior and patterns are like in terms of alcohol versus low alcohol or no alcohol or other alternatives in the market, or like wine versus spirits versus beer, and it's it's going to be interesting, with the rise of this, like TikTok generation, where they, where they spend their money versus those those prior.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 39:33

Absolutely.

Brandon Amoroso: 39:33

Yeah Well, my last question for you if you could share a bottle with anyone, who would it be, and what would you drink?

Guillaume Cuvelier: 39:45

Okay, well, it really depends who I would.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 39:50

Okay, so the the person that would I would drink it is probably my wife, because she loves wine and she loves good wine.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 40:00

And I've already answered half of you the other question because I love wine and that, not that I don't like a good bottle of gin or bottle of scotch or whiskey, but but I'm sort of a wine wine guy and I, you know, and my taste in wine has evolved and now I can tell you, sort of digging heavy in the Côte du Rhone region of France, I used to drink a lot of Bordeaux and I went to Burgundy but I didn't stay there because it's just too expensive. So so I moved South to Côte du Rhone and I'm just discovering some great, some great wine there. And sometimes, you know you in France, in Italy as well, you found some small producers, you know, in sort of odd of the beat of the beaten track path, you know paths like in really small region, that have amazing wines too. So I love to find small producers that are just, you know, hard to find and they just make great stuff. So you know, that's kind of, yeah, what I love to discover in wine.

Brandon Amoroso: 41:04

No, that's awesome. I love the. The small producers are some of the coolest ones I've uncovered, like even in California, the tiny little parcels in Napa that have an unknown sort of label or name there's.

Brandon Amoroso: 41:18

Those are more more interesting to me than some of the larger mass produced wines, for sure. Well, thank you so much for joining us. This is very, very interesting. I've got like a thousand more questions, but we got to limit this to a certain time threshold. So again, thank you for coming on. I'm really glad that you were able to make it and I'm sure our listeners were able to take a lot away from from this.

Guillaume Cuvelier: 41:44

Great Well, thanks for inviting me. It's been a pleasure to chat with you for a little bit and, yeah, I can't wait to hear the feedback, if you have any. So that's great.

Brandon Amoroso: 41:55

Definitely Well for everybody listening. This is Brandon Moroso. You can find me at drinkscom or BrandonMorosocom, and we will see you at the next episode.