We were lucky to catch up with Howard Tuthill recently and have shared our conversation below.

Howard , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Margins in the restaurant industry are always tight, but over the course of the last couple years with covid, the “great resignation,” and inflation, controlling costs is increasingly difficult. Although our sales have continued to increase year over year, our food/ingredient costs and labor costs have increased significantly. I have tried to keep my pricing consistent, so it is a constant balancing act to not let our costs get out of control as they are constantly changing…usually increasing. We have a really strong team, so I feel comfortable about paying higher wages, so I primarily focus on trying to control our food costs to drive our profitability.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We are a craft distillery and restaurant in Niles, MI. We produce a variety of spirits and liqueurs including vodka, whiskey, rum, bourbon creme, limoncello, orangecello and huckleberry moonshine. In our restaurant we serve craft cocktails, gourmet burgers, salads, and shrimp tacos just to name a few! We are very proud to make Niles, MI our home and are committed to being an integral part of the Niles community.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The last couple years have been all about resilience. At the beginning of the pandemic we initially shut the distillery/restaurant down completely, as we were unsure how we were going to operate amidst all of the restrictions. We quickly saw the need for sanitizer in the community, so we went all in and solely made hand sanitizer for two months. In terms of production, this was the busiest we have ever been, we were able to keep the business moving forward while providing a critical need to the community during the pandemic. Similarly, as we navigated through the pandemic restrictions, we realized that eventually life as we new it would go back to normal, so we focused our attentions on growth and to position ourselves for success once all restrictions were lifted. As such, we expanded our capacity by doubling our indoor dining, adding a rooftop bar and patio, and expanded our distilling capabilities.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

Iron Shoe Distillery is my second distillery. My first was in Colorado that I started from the ground up and ran for a couple years before deciding to sell. At the time I knew nothing about selling a business and thought I should get the help of a business broker. In the end, I was the one who found the buyer and did most of the negotiations, the broker really just got in the way and did more harm than good. The sale went through, but I ended up paying a large commission to the broker that he really did not earn. If I were to do it again I would not utilize the services of a broker, and rather advertise my business myself and utilize professional services, like lawyers, only when needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ironshoedistillery.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/IronShoeDistilling