Last month, local distillery startup Full Circle Craft Distillers signed a landmark deal with Preiss Imports, a leading spirits importer, to roll out their line of artisanal products across the United States. The partnership marks the first entry for a Filipino product on the importer’s prestigious lineup, and the latest milestone in Full Circle Founder and Head Distiller Matthew Westfall’s impressive journey.
In last week’s in-depth exclusive on The Independent Investor, Westfall shared that he takes immense pride in representing the Philippines on the global stage. His flagship product, Archipelago Botanical Gin (or ARC) is crafted from 28 botanicals sourced primarily from small-scale farmers all over the Philippines. Ingredients include pomelo, dalandan, calamansi, dayap, mango, Benguet pine, sampaguita, ylang-ylang, and kamia flowers. Founded in 2018, and based out of Calamba, Laguna, Full Circle’s award-winning spirits have made their way onto top shelves around the world—across the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Europe.
“Our model assumes a methodical plan for expansion as we build demand and reach new markets,” Westfall said. “But those plans are now being fast-tracked, as over the past three years we have been growing at 265% annually, nearly tripling our production year-on-year. It’s a good problem to have, so we are moving things up.”
But global presence does not necessarily mean international traction. “As a PEZA-registered enterprise, we have focused on exports since our launch,” Westfall said. “The challenge, as we came to discover, is a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. How can one export without overseas demand? How can one generate overseas demand without exporting?”
Following their latest partnership, Full Circle has found not only an importer to facilitate their US operations, but a champion to proactively build their brand with them. Preiss Imports is internationally-recognized for their robust network and story-driven approach to marketing niche brands. Working alongside them, Full Circle hopes to develop a clear roadmap to take on the massive US market for craft spirits, which by 2023 is expected to reach revenues of over $20 billion.
Looking beyond the US, Westfall is also in the middle of closing similar deals across other key markets. In Asia, they’re striking new importer arrangements in Singapore and Hong Kong, where they already have a prominent presence, and are poised to expand into other regional markets as soon as pandemic restrictions allow.
Partnerships are also being established in London and Hamburg to better capture the UK, German, Austrian, and Swiss markets. To serve distributors across the European Union, Westfall also has an EU distribution hub in the works. Based out of Germany, this hub will be operational early next year.
While the last three years saw Full Circle expanding rapidly across new markets, Westfall says the next few will see the distillery startup making moves towards more meaningfully capturing them.
“We’re not looking for short-term gains or a quick win,” said Westfall. “Rather, we are in for the long-haul, and committed to building a meaningful Philippine brand that resonates… And so it goes. One market at a time.”