Thread by @digitallynativ

A thread about White Claw 🐾

And entrepreneurship...

🍷

2/ In the early 1970s, a Canadian born recent college grad named Anthony von Mandl landed a wine selling apprenticeship

He quickly parlayed that experience into starting his own wine importation business out of the back of his car at the age of 22

3/ Over the next decade, von Mandl continues to expand his business throughout Vancouver and across Canada.

He moves into a modest office in Vancouver and prudently squirrels away profits

At the age of 31, he purchases Mission Hill Winery northwest of Vancouver

4/ von Mandl took on significant personal debt to purchase the winery and is immediately concerned that he made a grave financial mistake

In order to cover the costs of the winery and his loan, von Mandl turns to a side business the winery had been in:

Cider

5/ He describes the cider is "awful" and enlists the help of a Swiss beverage expert (von Mandl grew up in Europe) to tweak the recipe and turn it into a sweeter peach cider

Sales for the cider explode

But his success comes at a cost

6/ von Mandl is fined several million dollars by the Canadian government for his use of non-recycled beer bottles and requires him to buy them back

In order to sell off hundreds of thousands of bottles, von Mandl creates Clark's Great Canadian Beer

Sales for Clark's explode

6/ von Mandl parlays Clark's into a beer importation business throughout the 80s and early 90s

His experience in the beer industry leads him to an important conclusion

"25% of guys didn't particularly want to drink beer, but couldn't be seen holding anything else in their hand"

7/ von Mandl leverages this data point and inspiration in 1996 to build his biggest hit yet: Mike's Hard Lemonade

Mike's breaks ground in the beverage industry, creating a new category which von Mandl called "the worlds first spirit cooler"

Mike's is an instant success

8/ in 1999 von Mandl and his team reformulate Mike's to a malt beverage and bring it to the US

between 1996 and 2018, Mike's Hard Lemonade generates a reported $1.8B in sales across North America

In 2015 the brand is acquired by Labatt Beverage (InBev sub) for $350M

9/ the success of Mike's allows von Mandl to fund his true passion: Wineries. He expands upon Mission Hill, turning it into a world-class winery

In fact, in 1994 the Chardonnay vintage produced at Mission Hill was awarded 'Chardonnay of the Year' in worldwide competition

10/ Although no longer in the 'spirit cooler' business, von Mandl again begins to tinker with a beverage that would serve the same purpose as Mike's but also capitalize on the low-calorie/health trend as well as the burgeoning seltzer market

So in 2015, he creates White Claw

11/ White Claw is a 100 calorie 5% ABV canned flavored seltzer product

White Claw is not the only hard seltzer on the market, but von Mandl has long been a master storyteller and marketer

In fact, his kids called him 'Tony Baloney' for his ability to spin up stories

12/ White Claw outperforms it's primary competitor, Truly, and by 2019, White Claw is red hot in the United States

Demand is so intense, that there's a national sell out of White Claw in late summer

In fact, in the month of July 2019, White Claw reportedly outsold Budweiser

13/ after 40+ years in the beverage business, von Mandl still owns White Claw through his beverage holding company called Mark Anthony Group

It is the #1 RTD beverage in the world and his businesses generate $4B in revenue annually

von Mandl now has a net worth of $4.4B

14/ without von Mandl's passion for wine, appetite for risk, and mastery of storytelling we may never have had White Claw

So cheers to entrepreneurs who are building something they love, or building something for what they love

You never know what will be created along the way

15/ Postscript:

I was mostly joking about White Claw being von Mandl’s gift to the world

The real gift is that the son of immigrants built a world class winery in a region of the world not known for wine

It put Vancouver on the wine ‘map’ and changed the Canadian wine industry

Fun fact: von Mandl (the master marketer) named his company Mark Anthony Group despite the fact that no one named 'Mark' was involved

He did it because he felt that the name 'Mark Anthony' sounded oddly familiar

4D Chess

This tweet went semi-viral

So I took the opportunity to salute Mr von Mandl for the inspiration

Love what you do

And do what you love