San Francisco’s Hotaling & Co. Carving Out Growth In Tough Market
May 21, 2024San Francisco-based importer and marketer Hotaling & Co. is off to a strong start in 2024, says company president and CEO Dan Leese. He adds that Hotaling’s portfolio is bucking wider industry trends and is navigating the post-pandemic period of normalization well. “We’re very happy with the start of the year: High single digits through March is what we have depletions on,” he says. For April, Leese told SND that the company hit its month-long sales targets with “five or six shipping days left.”
While pleased with Hotaling’s performance so far in 2024, Leese says that he can see the challenges facing the spirits industry in Hotaling’s own numbers and projections. “It looks like it’s going to be a more normalized year, I think. For the industry, maybe 3% growth for spirits,” he says. “Of course, we have aspirations for more than that. So far, we feel pretty good about the start of this year.”
Leese highlighted Luxardo’s Maraschino liqueur as a strong performer for Hotaling. He says that since 2020, the company has made a big off-premise push for the liqueur while sustaining its strong presence in the on-premise for cocktail-making. Other growth areas include Nikka’s line of Japanese whiskies, Hirsch American whiskies, and Fiero Tequila.
Hirsch is doing well from a small base and is primed for a push with a particular focus on international expansion in Canada, the U.K., and the E.U. “We’ve got single barrel offerings from Hirsch that are coming out this year. We’ve got a 4-year-old expression. We’ve also got 9- to 10-year-old expressions coming out,” says Leese. “We think that we can take advantage of a growth area in the marketplace.”
For Old Potrero whiskey, Hotaling is working to build the brand across the U.S. as more of Old Potrero’s ryes come of age. “It’s been primarily a West Coast brand, and for a long time it was allocated,” he says. “As we’ve started to lay down more and launch more on our 6-year-old, the reaction has been great.”
To drive further growth, Leese says that Hotaling has put a greater emphasis on placing its products in national on-premise accounts. “We had not been terribly focused on national accounts on-premise in the past,” he says, but that is now changing. “A year ago we consolidated with Southern Glazer’s nationally,” he notes, with the top wholesaler’s prowess in on-premise national accounts offering new growth opportunities.—Shane English
Subscribe to Shanken News Daily’s Email Newsletter, delivered to your inbox each morning.
