We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Thompson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

The causes we focus on revolve around military non-profits and military families nationwide. Our name derives from the original 10th Mountain Army Division formed in Vail, CO’s backyard at Camp Hale. From day one, it has been built into our organizational philosophy to give back to those women and men who serve. It can take the form of product donations, merch donations, financial contributions, in-person support, no charge to use our space, or daily discounts for the military. It’s an essential part of our overall business.

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

My entire 25 year career has been in restuarant hospitallity in one way or another. About twelve years ago I was watching what the craft distillery industry was doing and how it was mimicking the craft brewery industry. Distilleries were 10 years behind the brewery movement. I saw an opportunity to make spirits in my hometown and thought someone was going to make whiskey sooner or later. I figured it might as well be so I created a philanthropic, award winning craft distillery named in honor of the 10th Mountain Army Division. The Division originated in our area in the 1940s, training a few miles south of our home town at a place called Camp Hale. There is still a lot of 10th influence in our area even though their headquarters are now in upstate New York. We named our distillery in honor of this historic military division in order to perpetuate their history, carry on tradition and support miliatry non-profits around the country. To date, we’ve helped out over 50 military organizations in some aspect or another which we’re all very proud of at the distillery.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Yes, we sell on our site using the Shopify plug-in. However, our industry is unique because we can’t ship direct to consumer ourselves. Since our products are high proof spirits we are required to use a 3rd party fulfillment company. Due to these restrictions we can’t use Amazon, Etsy or any other website as a sales outlit for our spirits.
Although the buying process on our site is completely branded with our company the actual fulfillment and shipping is handled by a different company. It’s challenging but it’s the best we can do given the restraints on our industry. It’s still our product and we get the buyers information, but we have a middleman to handle the shipping. They get a percentage of each sale, but it’s better to use them than not be able to sell our spirits DtC at all.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid created a ton of challenges for all businesses. When we realized what was going on we decided to start making hand sanitzier. Never in a million years would I have thought we’d be making this product. But we’re one of the very first distilleries in the country to do so. At first, we were giving out the product to anyone and everyone. The big challenge then was finding bottles to put the saniztizer in. After a few weeks of doing this we realized we had to at least break even on the product so we started charging our costs. We are proud of our quick pivot and proud we were in a position to support our community during the uncertain times Covid brought.

Contact Info:

• Website: 10thWhiskey.com
• Instagram: 10thMtnWhiskey
• Facebook: 10thMtnWhiskey
• Twitter: 10thMtnWhiskey
• Other: TikTok: 10thMtnWhiskey