Every corner of the liquor industry has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by both the on-premise shut down as well as drops in consumption and sales.
For Sydney based distillery Archie Rose, both those areas impacted their business – shutting down their bar and impacting the points of sale for their product itself.
The Archie Rose bar closed on March 20, which for many of us in the industry feels like a lifetime ago. But as tightening restrictions and their implications took hold in the coming weeks and months, Archie Rose didn’t lie dormant. They were busy pivoting different parts of their operations to remain relevant in times of quarantine and isolation, moves which proved successful overall.
Victoria Tulloch, Archie Rose Head of Marketing, said it was all about moving quickly, identifying needs in the community and how they could fill them with the resources on hand.
“Being able to very quickly redeploy our bar team was a very clear objective that motivated us to move extremely quickly to produce Hand Sanitiser following the Archie Rose Bar shutdown on 20 March – we literally threw all our resources at it, holding morning and afternoon progress meetings, hitting the phones to suppliers to secure packaging, designing an in-house designed label within 24 hours and reviewing distillate supply to ensure we had the ingredients ready,” Tulloch explained.
“We were also lucky to have had a database of 50,000 people at the time (which has grown considerably over recent months) that we could immediately sell the product to and a team that were also able to sell and market this product to other government bodies and companies unable to source hand sanitiser at the time.”
The sanitiser was insanely popular, supplied to retailers like Dan Murphy’s and other essential businesses with vital products they couldn’t source elsewhere, as well as releasing a limited amount to the public online, which quickly sold out.
The pandemic also fuelled changes to other areas of Archie Rose operations, including moving into takeaway retail and virtual events. A variety of customer and sales channels supported these changes, with an existing strong database and e-commerce functionality able to be quickly utilised to support new ideas.
“Innovation is already one of our core business values and the thing that prepared us as a team to be able to move very quickly from producing spirits to sanitiser and something that will continue to be vital for us and other businesses as we adapt to the new market conditions Covid-19 is imposing,” Tulloch said.
She described some of these vital pivot points and their outcomes and said: “We were able to very quickly set up the Archie Rose Bar as a cellar door which has again provided income to our bar team and we will be re-formatting our bar to enable this in a similar format moving forward.”
“Creating virtual events and tastings, guided by our Brand Ambassadors, has also been very successful and something we will continue. And finally, more than ever, being an Australian producer who prioritises buying and heroeing local ingredients is something we will continue both to provide economic support for growers and producers – and because people more than ever are likely to be keen to buy Australian.”
The value of these moves is appreciated by Archie Rose not only for what they could offer at the height of the pandemic, but also for what they can provide to the business with continued investment. For example, a sold out virtual World Gin Day event will go ahead on June 13, despite the bar reopening from tomorrow. Takeaway elements will also continue in this way, offering access to sold out or limited edition bottlings.
And although the pandemic has put plans on hold for some brands, Archie Rose has not let it stop them from releasing new product, including the first spirit from the distiller’s experimentation with smoke-tainted grapes of the Hunter Valley.
The Hunter Valley Shiraz Spirit is an eau de vie which was distilled from grapes salvaged from several vineyards affected by the 2019/2020 bushfire crisis. Released just over a week ago, it’s already sold out online, with the last bottles in the 1000 strong release only available at the Archie Rose bar and select venues across the country.
Even though this bottling is almost gone, we can expect more smoke-tainted product in future, as most of the spirit is being aged to be released as a brandy in coming years.
At the time of the spirit’s announcement, Archie Rose Founder Will Edwards said the team was looking to help growers just a couple hours up the road from their home, and are pleased they have been able to do that.
“As eau de vie is a spirit very few people have tried, we’re really excited to share this Hunter Valley Shiraz Spirit and looking forward to seeing how the smoke taint eventually plays into a brandy, currently laid down in casks to age for a minimum of two years,” Edwards said.
Despite some real challenging moments in 2020 so far, the year is set to remain a big one for Archie Rose, with their Single Malt Whisky set for release later this year as well. In the meantime, they continue to create multiple avenues to connect with their customer base of trade and consumer.
