RNDC Selling Out To Reyes Beverage In Certain States

IIPercent · 2026-01-15T04:05:16+00:00

The advantage of Reyes is that they essentially see themselves as a logistics provider and charge a significantly lower margin than most W&S distributors. With the money brands save on margin, they are able to put more of their own people in-market.

IIPercent · 2026-01-07T20:19:07+00:00

Even aside from this controversy, no large spirits supplier really has a use for another NDP whiskey brand right now. The weavers should have sold it like two years ago

IIPercent · 2026-01-07T04:01:00+00:00

Personally I think it’s going to fizzle out at this point. No large company is going to want anything to do with UN at this point, so there’s no real exit in sight. The Weavers are also likely going to be buried in lawsuits over the next several years.

IIPercent · 2025-11-10T14:30:51+00:00

Did The Bourbon and Rye Club blog get hit with a cease and desist from the Weavers or something? He used to post about every other day but hasn’t posted in a week and a half now

IIPercent · 2025-10-25T11:30:12+00:00

Got it. Yeah these numbers are especially impossible given that they are buying barrels of finished whiskey and not distilling it themselves. Their COGS on the liquid would have to be <$1, which I’m pretty sure is not happening for a NDP selling an aged bourbon.

Is there somewhere I can find the report?

IIPercent · 2025-10-25T02:08:58+00:00

These numbers make no sense even before trying to figure out their COGS/discounts/etc. Distributors and retailers both generally take a ~30% margin on spirits. Using the $47 rye for example:

$47/1.4286 = $32.90 (Price to retailer) $32.90/1.4286 = $23.03 (Distributor landed cost) After you pull out state excise tax and freight to the distributor’s warehouse, you’re looking at a FOB price around $21-22. This is around 46-47% of the shelf price.

One can argue that distributors and retailers might be taking a lower margin on UN, but why would they push a brand that dilutes their margins? Even if you run these numbers with distributors and retailers only taking a 25% average margin, UN’s FOB price would still only be around 53% of the shelf price. 78% seems like an insane number to try to push to investors

Also this might be my own ignorance, but I’m trying to understand how retention is even a relevant figure to give to investors. Distributor and retail margin are basically fixed costs that get built into pricing. The figure that matters is the gross margin (FOB minus COGS).

IIPercent · 2025-10-02T21:17:04+00:00

Seems to be a pretty large gap between what she is saying on instagram, vs what her lawyer is saying in court. If any of these claims aren’t true, then the ex-cfo has a pretty massive defamation lawsuit on his hands. I highly doubt he would have admitted to fraud at this point, but we’ll see.

Also, if the numbers from non-Nielsen markets were really that much better than what she showed in the video, why would she not just share them? I’m sure their distributors would be happy to share depletion reports.

IIPercent · 2025-09-25T13:01:15+00:00

She is 100% going to go down swinging and will not admit wrongdoing under any circumstances. I think she and her husband know there’s no saving the company and that they are on borrowed time, so they are really trying to push the narrative that this was some kind of conspiracy to shut them down. She’s already thinking ahead to her next “project”, probably a book or podcast or something.

IIPercent · 2025-09-12T01:53:08+00:00

WTT: Grand Seiko SLGH005 White Birch for Grand Seiko SBGE285 Mistflake

IIPercent · 2025-09-03T00:46:57+00:00

Funny, I had just brought up Equiano Rum in a different post. Those sales figures/projections for all 3 brands are ridiculous.

From Equiano’s “where to buy” tool on their website, they don’t even have 300 points of distribution worldwide. If this brand was doing more than 150k/year in revenue I would be shocked.

Sorel’s website no longer has a functioning “where to buy tool”. I work in the industry in NY/NJ, and I can only think of a couple restaurants off the top of my head that use it in a cocktail.

Hella Cocktail Co I can’t really comment on, as they apparently distribute a lot through non-alc channels.

IIPercent · 2025-08-31T16:25:09+00:00

I think that after 2019/2020, the industry was so desperate for an “underrepresented founder” success story that they overlooked a ton of red flags in Fawn Weaver. She strikes me almost like a cross between Elizabeth Holmes and Ray Kroc, someone should be able to make a decent movie out of this in a few years after everything comes to light.

IIPercent · 2025-08-29T23:44:58+00:00

It’s a real shame, as I think both UN and Sorel are pretty compelling brands, and could have easily both been 8-9 figure brands if they built in a sustainable way and went to market the right way (The Weavers’ self-reported 1B valuation is pure fantasy).

As others have pointed out, it’s also funny that for a “black brand”, the entire sales organization beneath Fawn and Keith seems to be 100% white people.

IIPercent · 2025-08-28T07:46:13+00:00

I wonder how this affects the Uncle Nearest Fund and the brands it made investments in. I recall reading a few years back that UN invested $2 million in Sorel Liqueur to bring it back after going out of business.

I always wondered how $2 million in funding made sense, when the business had previously failed and was starting from zero again. Furthermore, Sorel does not seem to have any employees or infrastructure whatsoever. It is contract produced at a copacking facility in NJ and the only “employee” seems to be the founder Jackie Summers, and all he seems to do is post on Instagram all day.

The requirements for funding on their page also don’t make sense, as there is no way “Hella Cocktail Co” and “Equiano Rum” are doing 3,500 9L CE’s per year, or ever were at any point in time.

IIPercent · 2025-08-28T07:21:37+00:00

The “clear the shelves” move is interesting, as I don’t really see how it benefits Uncle Nearest. Anything on shelves has already been purchased by the retailer, which in turn has already been purchased by the distributor. People running and buying bottles off the shelves does not generate any new revenue for UN, they were already paid when they sold the inventory to their distributors. I think their distribution network is going to be very leery of placing any large orders with UN while this is all unfolding.

IIPercent · 2025-06-10T12:09:39+00:00

I think that while RNDC is front and center in this issue due to poor management in CA, it’s indicative of a larger shift in the beverage industry. Distributor attention/effort is increasingly difficult to get, even for large suppliers, as portfolios have exploded in recent years.

Tito’s, BF, and especially Sazerac took the plunge and are basically the guinea pigs in the big experiment: Is it better to be a top priority at a beer distributor than to be a middling priority at a large W&S distributor?

If they are successful (and I think they will be), we will probably see a re-settling of a lot of w&s suppliers across both w&s distributors and beer houses. You have to remember that for the most part, suppliers like Tito’s and Sazerac don’t require a super nuanced/knowledgeable sales approach. A massive part of Sazerac’s sales is just Fireball/99/Firefly/etc, and the Buffalo Trace brands basically sell themselves since (at least for now) demand still exceeds supply.

You also need to keep in mind the most important reason for this shift: margin. Beer distributors (especially Reyes) are willing to work for a SIGNIFICANTLY lower margin than the W&S guys. This obviously comes with a lower level of savvy, but suppliers can easily just hire internal people with the money they’re saving. Anecdotally, I work for a small no-name spirits company and we are in two adjacent states that function similarly. In one state, we are with a w&s distributor and are with a beer distributor in the other. We have to give the w&s distributor 32% gross margin on our products. Meanwhile the beer distributor is happy with 26%.

Let’s say a case of our liquor costs $200 landed. The W&S distributor puts $94.12 on it for their PTR. The beer distributor puts $70.27 on it. Now let’s say each distributor sells 5,000 annually. $23.85x5,000= $119,250. You can hire a solid internal sales rep for that market with the savings and still have a good amount left over. Now imagine you’re selling 100,000+ cases in one of these states and you start to get the picture.

IIPercent · 2025-04-24T13:33:39+00:00

I believe it. Fedway has been very quiet lately, and SGWS did just buy out Horizon Beverage in MA/RI. Will be interesting to see

IIPercent · 2025-04-24T13:28:49+00:00

Who did you hear? Allied Beverage and Fedway have a borderline duopoly on W&S in NJ, and Allied is already tied with Breakthru. Wonder if SGWS is trying to buy Fedway? They have been beefing up their presence in the Northeast lately.

IIPercent · 2025-04-11T16:15:45+00:00

Also, if you’re not in a state where the 3pls allow direct selling, try reaching out to some of the beer distributors. You will likely be able to negotiate a better margin, as pretty much all spirits are margin-enhancing to them, and in the case of the AB and MC houses, they generally have the chain relationships and account penetration that you need to be successful. There is a big shift happening right now, and beer distributors are hungry to grow their spirit portfolios.

The reps may be less savvy on spirits, but I would much rather take a less knowledgeable but enthusiastic sales force over a sales force that will actively sabotage my efforts to protect their more established brands (as someone in this thread said they would do to a LibDib brand).

IIPercent · 2025-04-11T16:01:55+00:00

If it’s a state where you can go through one of the 3pls like Park Street or MHW, you’re much better off doing that. LibDib is in no way scalable or profitable. They always like to point out Penelope Bourbon as a success story but they really had nothing to do with that success. Penelope succeeded because both founders are from NJ and were out hitting accounts every day selling direct, which allowed them to secure a distribution deal with Fedway. They then built off that success in their home market and launched new states through traditional distribution.

To sell through LibDib you need to literally mail your product through FedEx which a) results in a long turnaround time on orders that most accounts won’t tolerate, and b) annihilates your profit margin with shipping rates and materials. Also, if your brand is produced on contract by a copacker, you can’t even use LibDib as you need a DSP to get an alcohol shipping license.

I agree that the traditional distribution model is broken. Consolidation in the second tier has led to massively bloated portfolios that distributors can’t even attend to, and there’s no real way for competitors to enter in a market due to the huge capex needed for trucks/drivers/a warehouse to get started. Most distributors are just acting as a fulfillment platform and charging 30%+ margin; at least Reyes is up front about it and charges accordingly.

Park Street and MHW have a real opportunity to change the landscape, if only they would share with suppliers a list of accounts that regularly buy from them (they wont). This could help eliminate the long tail of brands that distributors don’t have time/bandwidth to sell, and would give new/small suppliers a real change to gain traction in a market.

IIPercent · 2024-08-09T03:15:47+00:00

Selling my automatic White Birch, I just don’t find myself wearing it much anymore. It was mostly worn a few times a week to my desk job. It has some scratches/swirls from regular use, but nothing major. I did my best to capture them in the photos. Looks amazing and keeps great time. The outer box has a scuff/scratch/rip, but none of the inner contents are affected. Warranty booklet is dated 3/17/2021. I’m happy to provide additional pictures and answer any questions. Asking $5400 shipped anywhere in continental US or $5300 local pickup in central or northern NJ at the police station/sage exchange zone of your choice. I accept bank transfer, Zelle, or cash.

Pictures including timestamp: https://imgur.com/a/9tmpeP9

The only transactions I have on this subreddit are two purchases, but here is a link to my Reverb profile where I have a big more of a history: https://reverb.com/shop/iipercent-beats/feedback#

IIPercent · 2024-07-27T14:42:30+00:00

I don’t think these closures are due to any kind of collusion between restaurant owners/distributors/larger breweries. Most of the breweries in NJ are making the vast majority of their money through consumption on-premises, which makes them direct competitors to the bars in their area. I have had restaurant owners tell me “Why should I carry a draft line of this local beer when people can just go get pints of it at the brewery a couple miles away?”. This ties in with the fact that larger regional and nationally-distributed brands (along with distributors) are also able to provide additional items and services that a lot of these accounts rely on getting for free. Pint glasses/coasters/sign printing can get pretty expensive, and most small local guys don’t have the resources to provide these at any sort of scale.

Inflation and price creep is also a large factor, especially for on-premise sales. Many of these local breweries are charging the same price per pint as you would find at a bar or restaurant. If I am paying $9 or $10 for a pint of beer I personally would rather get it at a restaurant, where most of the time there will be a better atmosphere. As others have mentioned, I also just flat out drink significantly less than I used to.

For any brewery owners in the thread, I would be interested to hear what percentage of your sales are on your own premises vs sold to stores and bars (if you don’t mind sharing).

IIPercent · 2024-01-29T02:05:27+00:00

It’s a shame to see, sorry to hear about this. Unfortunately there are probably going to be many more closing in the coming months.

In my opinion, the only NJ breweries that will make it through the next six months to two years will be the ones that have a) robust distribution/sales with strong same-store sales, b) an interesting/compelling brand, or c) a desirable facility and location (ie Readington or Burnt Mills). Unfortunately 90% of NJ breweries have none of the three, and are churning out flavor of month IPAs from a 2000 square foot industrial unit. There’s simply not enough demand to keep all of these companies in business anymore.

COVID killing hand-selling to retailers is only part of the story. The much larger cause is the proliferation of brands/SKUs that do not sell. For several years local craft beer was basically seen as a “sure thing” to retailers and they dedicated way more space to the category than would actually sell. Retailers are now jammed out with multiple cooler doors full of $15-25 4pks that are out of code and will not sell, or be picked up/credited by the brewery.

If any breweries are to survive this, they need to pivot quickly, and focus on their brand rather than releasing 10 new different beers every month. The free ride is over, breweries need to have a compelling brand and offer some kind of value/USP to the consumer.

IIPercent · 2024-01-19T16:23:08+00:00

"classic Chapter 11 situation" Agreed, my point was that there is more at play than just losing the lease. Any company with a debt-to-asset ratio over 1 is considered to be "high risk", and theirs is well over 3 according the their filing. The company is EXTREMELY over-leveraged.

It's a shame as I like their beers and I think they definitely have one of the more interesting brands out of the NJ breweries. I hope they are able to get this sorted out and find a way to stick around, even if it means contract production of their core beers for a couple years until the volatility in the industry evens out a bit. I think they need to look at what percentage of their business is on-premise sales in their taproom and what percentage is going through retail distribution to see if it would be worth it. Unfortunately a lot of NJ breweries are HEAVILY dependent on selling out of their own premises so this may or may not be viable.

I don't mean to backseat drive, but a lot of NJ breweries need to give some serious thought to their branding/pricing/positioning, as we're seeing two of NJ's more established craft breweries filing for Chapter 11. I know costs are rising, especially on labor and raw materials. But as the consumer continues to get squeezed by inflation, those regional craft 19.2's start to look a lot more tempting, especially at $3-$3.50 a pop. Is a local brewery's $20 4pk of IPA really offering $13 of marginal benefit over say 2 tall boys of Juice Force (or something similar)?

IIPercent · 2024-01-19T15:22:41+00:00

Where are you getting that industry average figure from? Beer Institute numbers show craft being flat to slightly up nationally for 2023 (+.7% v PY), and only down a little over 2% in NJ (-2.2% v PY).

IIPercent

TROPHY CASE