Despite being in business for more than 150 years and listed on the National Register of Historic places as the oldest continuously operating distillery west of the Mississippi, McCormick Distilling has no intentions of resting on its laurels. In fact, this venerable company is expanding its portfolio with new forays into the whiskey and spiced rum categories. We spoke with Chairman Ed Pechar about the process, and about keeping McCormick modern and moving forward.
Over the course of some 155 years, operating in all 50 U.S. states and 51 countries worldwide, McCormick Distilling has surely seen it and done it all. Well, almost. The company was founded in 1856 as a whiskey distillery, and over the years evolved into a full line spirits supplier.
“Our vision, as always, was about ‘What haven’t we done?’ and ‘What is it about time that we do?’” explains McCormick Distilling Chairman Pechar. “So we went about looking at how we could return to our whiskey roots with a product that is premium in nature and different. The result of that is our new Triple Crown North American Blended Whiskey, which is launching this month.”
With a longstanding history as a value spirits company, McCormick Distilling underwent a change in ownership nearly two decades ago, whereupon new management immediately started to reconfigure the existing portfolio to include a selection of premium goods to be sold amongst the traditional and established brands. The company excelled in providing premium value products at popular prices, and has been very successful at doing just that, says Pechar. “McCormick Vodka is a two-million-case brand [annually]. But we started to branch out into other ventures with brands like Tequila Rose and Tarantula Tequila, and then several years back with 360 Vodka, a premium vodka offering with an inherently eco-friendly nature, which has been a big success for us.”
But in this industry, every new day brings a new idea and a growing trend, and McCormick had no intentions of missing out on any of them. As the popularity of whiskey continues to swell with drinkers [Ed Note: See Deb Harris’ in-depth look at the category on page 10], Pechar and his team knew it was time to go energetically back into the whiskey business and capitalize on McCormick’s substantial whiskey heritage.
