Eastside Distilling Inc

Overview

Eastside Distilling, Inc. (the “Company,” “Eastside Distilling,” “we,” “us,” or “our,” below) was incorporated under the laws of Nevada in 2004 under the name of Eurocan Holdings, Ltd. In December 2014, we changed our corporate name to Eastside Distilling, Inc. to reflect our acquisition of Eastside Distilling, LLC. We operate in two segments. Our Craft Canning + Printing (“Craft C+P”) segment provides digital can printing to customers in the craft beverage industry operating throughout the Pacific Northwest as well as other states. We also provide mobile canning services to the craft beverage industry in Oregon. In addition to these services we offer co-packing services from a single fixed site in Portland, Oregon. Our Spirits segment manufactures, blends, bottles, markets and sells a wide variety of alcoholic beverages under recognized brands in 23 U.S. states. Across both businesses we employ 47 peoplein the United States.

Mission and Strategy

Our mission is to offer great products and services in the craft beverage space.

This includes advanced digital can printing decoration with custom graphics and co-packing services with distinct capability and craftsmanship serving the craft beer, cider, and kombucha among other beverage segments. Craft C+P offers digital can printing to customers and co-packing services.

Our spirits brands span several alcoholic beverage categories, including whiskey, vodka, rum and tequila. We sell our products on a wholesale basis to distributors through open states, and brokers in control states.

Our strategy is to expand our two distinct businesses – Craft C+P and Spirits in our regional market where our brand equity and concentration of investment will have the greatest return. Our spirits portfolio is to be positioned as a leading regional craft spirits provider that develops brands, expands geographic presence growing revenue and cash flow. These two segments are detailed below.

Segments

Craft Canning + Printing

Digital Can Printing

In April 2022, we initiated operations of an innovative digital can printing facility that allows us to digitally print high quality graphics on aluminum beverage cans. This technology offers greater flexibility than traditional decoration methods and initially was directed toward smaller craft beverage manufacturers seeking custom graphics of limited releases, vintages, partnerships, and special events. This investment in digital printing at Craft C+P allows the Company the ability to offer unparalleled customization and flexibility to craft beverage producers seeking direct printing for canning projects of all sizes, while having an annual production capacity of over 20 million cans. One of Craft C+P’s many goals for 2024 is to significantly increase its production capacity.

Co-packing Facility

We offer co-packing services for non-alcoholic canned beverages including CBD soda waters in Portland, Oregon through a mobile co-packing network and one fixed co-packing location.

Mobile Canning

Our mobile canning business is located in Portland, Oregon. We use extensive proprietary and data-driven quality control measures and a robust clean-in-place procedure in order to provide the best packaging service for our customers. We take great pride in helping local beverage producers expand their distribution reach by using our service to offer industry-top quality and branding.

Spirits

Since 2014 we have developed or acquired award-winning spirits while evolving to meet the growing demand for quality products and services associated within the burgeoning craft and premium beverage trade. Our portfolio includes originals like theQuercus garryana barrel-finished Burnside Whiskey family, Portland Potato Vodka, Hue-Hue Coffee Rum, and Azuñia Tequilas.

Production and Supply

Digital printing customers must make a significant investment and bear substantial risks when converting their supply chain to digital printed cans. Customers rely on our ability to produce and supply critical components on a timely basis. Likewise, Craft C+P has made significant investments in technology, processes and its supply chain to deliver digitally printed cans ready for co-packing. We have a limited number of contracts with both equipment and material suppliers as well as logistics providers that form the core of our supply chain.

Our Spirits business production and supply chain involves several important stages, including bottle and label design, raw materials procurement, filling the bottles, and packaging the bottles in various configurations for shipment. To achieve a unique flavor profile for each brand, we use one or more of the following techniques: infusion of fruit, addition of natural flavorings, blending of products, and aging in selected casks. Once the final profile is approved and quality control standards are met, we filter the liquid as needed and bottle the product.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for the sourcing of our spirit products and raw materials, including our distillate products and other ingredients. These suppliers consist of third-party producers in the U.S. and Mexico. One key supplier is Agaveros Unidos de Amatitan, SA. de CV., which supplies tequila to us. We do not have long-term, written agreements with any of our other suppliers for the production of raw materials. However, we believe that we have consistent and reliable third-party sources for the needed materials.

Distribution Network

U.S. Distribution

Producers and importers of beverage alcohol in the U.S. must sell their products through a three-tier distribution system.

In the 33 open states, the distributors are generally large, privately held companies. The distributors and wholesalers in turn sell to individual retailers, such as liquor stores, restaurants, bars, supermarkets and other outlets licensed to sell alcoholic beverages. We primarily focus our distribution efforts in six open states; California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Washington and Florida.

In the 17 control states, the states themselves function as the distributor, and regulate suppliers, including our Company. In control states, producers and importers sell their products directly to state liquor authorities, which distribute the products and either operate retail outlets or license the retail sales function to private companies, while maintaining strict control over pricing and profit. Our largest distribution channel is in the state of Oregon through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

We hold the federal importer and wholesaler license required by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department and the requisite state licenses within the states in which we conduct business.

Our inventory is maintained in offsite bonded warehouses at our producers, our bonded warehouse in Milwaukie, Oregon, and at bonded warehouses managed by Park Street, our fulfillment and logistics partner. We also typically have inventory in transit that we ship nationally through our network of licensed and bonded carriers.

Wholesalers and Distributors

In the United States, we are required by law to use state-licensed distributors or, in the control states, state-owned agencies performing this function, to sell our brands to retail outlets. As a result, we depend on distributors for sales, product placement and retail store penetration. All of the distributors with whom we currently work also distribute our competitors’ products and brands. As a result, we must foster and maintain our relationships with our distributors. Through our internal sales team, we have established relationships for our brands with wholesale distributors in the states where we sell our products, and our products are sold in the U.S. by these wholesale distributors, as well as by various state beverage alcohol control agencies.

Significant Customers

Sales to one customer, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, accounted for approximately 19% and 18% of our consolidated sales for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Intellectual Property

Trademarks are an important aspect of our business. We sell our products under a number of trademarks which we own. Our brands are protected by trademark registrations or are the subject of pending applications for trademark registration in the U.S. where we distribute our brands. The trademarks may be registered in the names of our subsidiaries. In the U.S., trademark registrations need to be renewed every ten years. We expect to register our trademarks in additional markets as we expand our distribution territories.

Seasonality

Our Craft C+P business typically has peak sales mid to late summer. Our spirits business has historically followed the spirits industry seasonality trends with peak sales generally occurring in the fourth calendar quarter in spirits, primarily due to seasonal holiday buying.

Competition

We are the only digital can printing business in the United States operating in the Pacific Northwest. However, we compete with other digital can decorating companies in other regional markets and other can decorating companies that offer different decorating technologies. These alternative suppliers can produce can decorations at lower costs than our technology as well as at greater volumes.

The mobile canning and bottling industry is highly fragmented and very competitive. The threat of new entrants is high. Moreover, we compete at the hyper-local scale, where we have a customer base concentrated in the craft beer segment. One of our greatest threats associated with losing customers is the customer’s own growth and success. As new brewers grow, they are able to afford the investment in their own canning line. Recently, the growth of craft beer startups has slowed and this has affected the competition in our market and our ability to achieve adequate pricing.

Over the past ten years, the U.S. wine and spirits industry has undergone dramatic consolidation and realignment of brands and brand ownership. The number of major importers in the U.S. has declined significantly. Today, we believe seven major companies dominate the market: Diageo PLC, Pernod Ricard S.A., Bacardi Limited, Brown-Forman Corporation, Beam Suntory Inc., Davide Campari-Milano S.p.A., and Rémy Cointreau S.A. These competitors have substantially greater resources than we do due to their scale and ability to more effectively leverage the three-tier distribution system. Our spirits business has been repositioned to compete regionally in key markets where we have the greatest competitive advantage.

Government Regulation

We are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, U.S. Customs laws, and the Alcoholic Beverage Control laws of the states where our products are distributed, among many other regulations.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regulates the production, blending, bottling, sales and advertising and transportation of alcohol products. Also, each state regulates the advertising, promotion, transportation, sale and distribution of alcohol products within its jurisdiction. We are also required to conduct business in the U.S. only with holders of licenses to import, warehouse, transport, distribute and sell spirits.

We are subject to U.S. regulations on spirits, marketing, and advertising, such as style, media and messages. Labeling of spirits is also regulated in many markets, varying from health warning labels to importer identification, alcohol strength and other consumer information. All beverage alcohol products sold in the U.S. must include warning statements related to risks of drinking beverage alcohol products.

In the U.S. control states, the state liquor commissions act in place of distributors and decide which products are to be purchased and offered for sale in their respective states. Products are selected for purchase and sale through listing procedures which are generally made available to new products only at periodically scheduled listing interviews. Consumers may purchase products not selected for listings only through special orders, if at all.

The distribution of alcohol-based beverages is also subject to extensive federal and state taxation in the U.S. and internationally. Most foreign countries impose excise duties on wines and distilled spirits, although the form of such taxation varies from a simple application on units of alcohol by volume to intricate systems based on the imported or wholesale value of the product. Several countries impose additional import duty on distilled spirits, often discriminating between categories in the rate of such tariffs. If we begin distributing our products internationally, import and excise duties could have a significant effect on our sales, both through reducing the consumption of alcohol and through encouraging consumer switching into lower-taxed categories of alcohol.

Employees

As of April 1, 2024, we have 47 employees, 7 of whom are in sales and marketing, 33 in printing/production/canning/bottling, and 7 of whom are in administration. We will continue to monitor our staffing while streamlining our operations for working capital needs.

Geographic Information

Craft C+P operates in one state. Spirits currently sells its products in 23 states.