INVESTBEV 2020
Thank you for your interest in INVESTBEV Spring 2020!
On June 11, you and six other distilleries will be meeting with investors, ranging from early-stage seed capital providers to large, multi-national beverage venture groups. Please take a few minutes to review the information below. We'll be sending you a final event agenda on Wednesday, along with the final investor list.
Participating Brands
-Fabrizia Spirits LLC (NH), Phil, Nick Mastroianni
-Mountain Laurel Spirits (PA), John Cooper, Herman Mihalich
-Republic Restoratives (DC), Pia Carusone
-Tamar Distillery (CA), Crispin Cain, Tamar Kaye
-Penelope Bourbon (NJ), Michael Paladini
-Golden Moon Distillery (CO), Stephen Gould, Dr. Karen Knight, John Lennon
-Black Button Distilling (NY), Jason Barrett
12:00p-12:30p CT/ 1PM-1:30 PM EST: General meeting and introduction of brands, investors, brand development team.
12:30p-1:15p CT: David Ozgo, Chief Economist, Distilled Spirits Council, will give the keynote address. Joe Donadoni, VP Membership, will follow with comments about DISCUS participation.
1:15p-4:00p CT: Investors will have 30-minute meetings with each brand in private chat rooms. Investors will be automatically be rotated into brand chat rooms every half hour.
Process
Prior to June 11, investors will be given general background information on your distillery, as you've previously provided to me. In the chat room meetings, you'll have one half-hour to present your company, brands, general strategy and opportunity. The intention of this meeting is to create enough interest in your company to arrange a second round of meetings outside of this event. Investors most likely will ask for a background deck and samples of your products.
Preparation
Investors are looking for brand opportunities that have unique-to-category products that compete in growth categories. Their interest is to find a brand(s) that, with the proper funds, can be scaled up to compete nationally and sold within three to five years (if the investor is a venture capital or private fund group) or added to their spirits portfolio for international development (if the investor is a multi-national beverage venture group).
Questions to anticipate include:
-How will your brand remain competitive in this current environment of coronavirus and social unrest?
-What steps are you taking now to remain competitive in this unstable environment?
-What makes your brand unique-to-category?
-Who are your key competitors and how do you differentiate your brands from theirs?
-What are your projected 2020 sales? 2021 sales?
-What market development funding do you need to reach sales of 40-50,000 cases (9 liter) within three to five years?
-Do you have a strong brand development team, with proven success in spirits growth, to help you reach this case volume level, should we provide you with market development funding?
-What is their experience in creating and developing spirits brands to this sales level?
-What is your current production capacity? What additional funds do you need to support growth to produce at the 40-50,000 case level?
-Are you willing to sell your company within three to five years?
Summary
On June 11, you'll have the opportunity to meet a range of investors, from early stage to large multinational corporations. The common thread that they're looking for in a spirits company, is brand value-added, growth potential and management team experience in creating spirits growth. Also, if they move forward to fund you, they're looking at a three to five year relationship with you. So they want to invest in people that are easy to work with, having a strong work ethic.
If you have any questions between now and event day, please give me a call. Dave Perry 312 401 1882