Deep Roots Distillery

Deep Roots Distillery

Introduction

The Deep Roots Distillery has been in business since 2014 when they acquired their license. It is a small family owned business in the town of Warren Grove, Prince Edward Island. Mike and Carol Beamish planted their first 200 apple trees in 1990, and continued to plant more and by 1995 they had two acres of apple trees. They began to sell their apples on the roadside and with the high demand of their products, they opened the “U-Pick”. In 2005 they developed their operation to certified organic. The family devoted their evenings and weekend to the company as they both worked full time. Mike retired in 2012 with the plan to grow the company and increase profitability of the farm. In 2013 the family decided to venture to a new exciting endeavor of craft organic distillery. By early July 2014, the licensing process was complete, the first products were distilled in the bottle and on the shelf (Beamish, 2014).

TOWS

Strength- free social advertisement, production of great product, own source of organic products, loyal customer base established,

Weakness- financial, new to the business, no major capital for marketing, e-commerce

Opportunities- use social media for marketing of products, doing tasting (salons, at hotels that attract tourists and/or onsite), apply for grants

Threats- Competition, bigger companies with much more resources, sales on peak season for Prince Edward Island tourists

Strength/Opportunity- (Utilizing strength to capitalize on opportunity) Use free social media advertisement. The family can also provide sampling at local events such as farmers market, hotels that attract tourism, and also do onsite tasting at the farm. Because their products are organic, they capitalize on this. Many people are “into healthy kicks” knowing that a product is organic will feed into that. The Beamish family are well known in the community, they can use their connections to promote in the local paper and radio. Target companies who are known for their organic products as well as to advertise and provide sample bottles to be giving out with their products.

Strength/threats- (take advantage of strength to reduce threats) The family should focus on maintaining the customer service track record they have in town. Continue to nurture those small businesses in the area and advertise locally. By utilizing it’s own fruits for some of their products, which is very beneficial when there is a lack of suppliers, and it’s a very good way to compete. Because organic products are very difficult to substitute, they have an advantage here as well and Deep Roots Distillery can definitely exploit this avenue which can potentially become a threat to it’s competitors.