We were lucky to catch up with Jeff Cerise recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jeff, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
When I started this journey, I was selling a hand-made functional beverage called Switchel (that no-one has ever heard of) at Craft Fairs and Makers Markets. Sales and demand quickly outpaced expectations and the other products we were selling at the time. I knew from past experience that the first thing I needed to do was hyper focus on this new product, and find a suitable co-packer. I immersed myself in books on the subject and scheduled meetings with people who’ve done this before.
From there I created both a business and a marketing plan, found a good banker, and then got to work on the production details…Going from idea to execution as a start up business takes discipline, long hours, and a relentless pursuit of your dream which is to finish what you started…
Within a few short months we teamed up with a company called BevSource to scale up my recipes and help me find ingredient suppliers in bulk, suitable packaging for the product that all important co-packer. 3 months later we had a warehouse full of bottles and kegs and we were selling hundreds of cases a week out of our flagship store in the Keg & Case Marketplace in St. Paul.
With a warehouse full of product, I was then taxed with finding multiple ways to move it. The goals and projections set forth in the business plan were well thought out, and I was following this guide with much success, but as we all know, life happens, and things don’t always go according to plan. The pandemic was devastating to a lot of small business owners and we were not spared from that hardship. Our revenues dropped over 60% for 2 years in a row.
Luckily we had a pretty good base of customers in place before COVID hit and with some creative thinking, we established curbside pick-up during that time, created e-commerce from our own website, expanded sales to more retailers, bars and restaurants. We also signed up for every festival and event we could find and continue to do that to this day. The business was still out there, we just needed to find it in places other than our store which had been shuttered during COVID. The Keg & Case Marketplace never fully recovered after the pandemic and a tough decision was made to close our retail store in July of 2023 and we are now concentrating on our wholesale accounts.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
It was during my days on the road as a rock musician that my mom taught me how to make Switchel to soothe my hoarse and aching throat, a constant problem for me as a singer. It basically kept me healthy and alive during those long years on the road. If you’re not familiar with Switchel, you should know this…its a functional beverage that has been around since the 17th century used primarily as a health elixir and energy drink. Its considered a Pre-biotic meaning; it feeds the good bacteria that already exist in your gut biome. At only 90 calories its a great replacement for sugary sodas and tonics and right now its very on trend as a sophisticated mocktail or cocktail mixer.
The simple ingredients of organic ginger, apple cider vinegar and honey combined with our spice blends of Turmeric, Cinnamon and Cayenne, give this beverage a crisp and refreshing taste that is gluten free, preservative free. Its known for a wide range of health benefits including energy, electrolytes, minerals, is a liver and kidney cleanse and helps with digestion, pain, and inflammation. (and it tastes great!)
After I got off the road as a musician, I knew this was a beverage that I eventually had to share with the world. Today, the biggest trends in the beverage industry are healthy and functional beverages…while other companies scramble to jump on the band wagon, or are still experimenting with ingredients that are both healthy and taste good, we enjoy proof of concept now for over 5 years from our tried and true recipes handed down through the generations.
I’m proud to say that our HF Switchel is on the menu of some of the areas best restaurants like W.A. Frost in St. Paul, The Jasper Hotel in Fargo, Bear Cave Brewing in Hopkins, and James Beard and Julia Child award-winning “Owamni” by the Sioux Chef in Minneapolis.
Our relationship with Owamni led to a recent request from the Julia Child Foundation to create a “feature Switchel cocktail” for the Awards Gala held at the Renaissance Hotel in Minneapolis honoring Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef. My Switchel Mezcal Moon Cocktail was served to the guests during cocktail hour and a sample of our Cayenne Switchel went into 150 VIP bags for the attendees.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
We took the pandemic shutdown and turned it into opportunity. While our flagship store remained closed for almost 2 years, we quickly developed a new online store on our website so customers could order online and do curbside pickup or have it shipped to their home. At the same time, I went to work on a “hard” version of our popular Switchel beverage. Within 6 months we scaled up the recipe and created the first gluten free, 5% ABV Hard Switchel in the nation, and in February of 2021 it was a winner of a prestigious Good Food Award in San Francisco!
After closing our store this July, we were forced to shutter our once very popular pickles and pickled beet products. To make up for those lost SKU’s we’ve launched other products easier to co-pack and continue to look at opportunities where they exist. This past August we used our Campfire Cocoa recipe and launched our first THC / CBD product called Canna-Cocoa in single serve packets to much demand! A clever single serve packet of cocoa started with 5mg THC and 5mg CBD and is quickly moving to 10mg in the next production run.
More infused products are on the way from HF, as are very encouraged to see the popularity of our first product in this new Cannabis legal landscape.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
This past June before closing the store at the Keg & Case I was taking shifts for our employees who were out hunting for a new gig. In walked a pleasant couple from Omaha who ordered up a Switchel flight. I struck up a conversation with them as they really seemed to enjoy our beverages. He shared that he worked for a distributor in Nebraska. He mentioned they had just lost 2 really good brands from the roster and he thought the owner of the company might be very interested in our product line. I gave him enough samples and cards to share with his crew in Omaha before closing our gates at the store for good a short time later…
To my surprise, a few weeks later I’m on the phone with the owner who was very impressed with our beverage and story. They drove up to St. Paul to meet again and a distribution deal was struck for the entire state of Nebraska. Switchel Fizz and our Award-Winning Hard Switchel are now being distributed throughout the state Nebraska by a company who really loves the beverage and wants to help us grown regionally. Had I not taken one of those last shifts at the store that day, none of this would have been possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HobbyFarmerFoods.com
- Instagram: @hobbyfarmercanning_co
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hobbyfarmercanningcompany
Image Credits
all images © Hobby Farmer Canning Co.