Last week I was in New Mexico working with our distributor, Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits. I love work trips! Getting out of the office and spending time with customers who use our products is really one of the best things about owning a business. Getting to see how happy they are serving cocktails to customers and making money! Work trips are also a time where I can think about where we are as a company today and where we’ve been, not much else to do in a hotel room but watch ESPN and think….. 

My dad started these brands in 2009, but I really consider our first official year of business as 2011. It was the summer after my freshman year at New York University. I remember my dad telling me, “You’re an adult now, you’re not sitting around all summer, you’re coming to work for me, I need a Facebook for our brands.” He was right, one year in New York City was a big change from the small surf town I grew up in, guess I’m “#adulting” now. But this was also a hilarious concept to me. My dad thought my summer job would be making a Facebook. 

Being a millennial, this took me about a day to accomplish. So now what? 

I remember walking into my dad’s office and being like, “OK, the Facebook is done, now what do you need me to do?” That’s when I first got to experience working with customers and the effect these brands have. 

Driving around Southern California, stopping in to accounts to try and explain what the heck Spirit Flavored Wines are…let’s just say I got a lot of doors slammed in my face. But there was one customer, I can’t remember the restaurant name anymore, but he had been using our Spirit Flavored Wines for about a year. Making margaritas at his family’s Mexican restaurant and killing it! I walked in on a taco Tuesday; the place was packed, and the margaritas were flowing! 

I remember talking to the owner and he was so excited to see me. At that time, we didn’t have sales reps to visit customers, so he was excited we came to see him. I remember him telling me, “I love your brands, we were struggling there for a little while… Ever since we started making cocktails, we have new customers coming in…. your Agave Wine helped us keep the lights on.” That was the moment I fell in love with Spirit Flavored Wines and what they do for our customers. 

Our brands aren’t “sexy.” They aren’t a 23-year aged Kentucky Bourbon or a 9-year aged tequila in a beautiful clay bottle. But they serve a HUGE purpose and help business owners around the country take their business to the next level. To me, helping other business owners is not only thrilling but fulfilling. 

Fast forward to March 2020…COVID-19. Overnight, our restaurant customers were forced to shut down, the world just stopped. SH**! Our customers aren’t open, what do we do now!? Well just like the time in hotel rooms, I had plenty of time to think about our next move. 

It was then that I started to research convenience stores. A huge market segment that was never a focus of ours, but who struggled with the same constraints as our restaurants. “My license won’t let me sell liquor,” and from that, Nick’s SFW was born. 

Now some of you might be thinking, “Wow, how arrogant is this guy to name a brand after himself? Who does he think he is? Tito?” No, I’m not arrogant, to be honest I’m a little embarrassed when I tell people the name of the brand. The real story is that I was using it as a place holder while designing the label, couldn’t think of another name so I just went for it. I guess we’ll see how it pays off! 

Cheers! 

-Nick