BPNC Distillery produces its own ready-to-drink beverages and offers contract-packaging services. Its customers are often entrepreneurs from the restaurant and bar industries.

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Since its conception 10 years ago, BPNC Distillery has become “an avenue for entrepreneurs to enter the liquor industry,” President Brian Pearson says. Based in Temperance, Mich., the company is a distillery that produces its own ready-to-drink beverages and offers contract-packaging services.

A former Marine and presidential guard, Pearson got the idea for BPNC Distillery in 1998, while he was on leave and at home for his sister’s 21st birthday. When his mother asked him to go out and buy Jell-O shots for the celebration, Pearson found that no one made them for sale.

When his mother commented that someone should manufacture them, Pearson got the inspiration to produce Zippers, the first pre-packaged gelatin shot. After finishing his service with the Marines, he started the company out of his garage in Genoa, Ohio, two years later.

But the process of getting the product approved and manufactured was not easy, Pearson says. “Everything about this industry has been difficult,” he admits. “[Getting] the gelatin shots approved in the United States took hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

At the time, the only co-packer that was willing to take on the product was a chicken soup manufacturer in Lodi, Ohio. But when the manufacturer could not keep up with production, Pearson decided to manufacture and distribute the product on his own, and placed it in retail stores and bars.

Eventually, Pearson convinced a distributor to sell the product statewide, and it grew to be carried in 25 states, as well as the United Kingdom, Germany and Holland. According to BPNC Distillery, it has manufactured more than 40 million Zippers shots.

Along with vodka-based shots and new flavors and formulas for the Zippers, BPNC Distillery has developed other products. For instance, in 2005, the company introduced the Tiki Rita Margarita, which is made with pure tequila.

In 2006, the company introduced EDEN, a cocktail made with white rum. “Created for the consumer who wants a non-carbonated, lightly sweetened, great-tasting cocktail, EDEN is cool and refreshing,” the company says. “At 7.5 percent alcohol, the blue raspberry and pink lemonade flavors have a smooth, clean finish.”

Pearson says the company’s latest contract products include its Apple Pie Liqueur, which blends apples, cinnamon and natural grain spirits, and Bohemian Spiced Whiskey, a blended Canadian whiskey. The company is also introducing producing Cryptonic, a 70 proof green lemon lime liqueur.

Breaking Barriers
As BPNC Distillery grew, it moved its operations to a 40,000-square-foot distillery in Temperance. Pearson shares ownership of the facility with his wife, Vice President Molly Pearson.

There, the company not only manufactures its own products, but also provides its contract manufacturing services, which comprises 70 percent of its business, Brian Pearson says. BPNC Distillery has the ability to produce an average of 400,000 cases annually.

Pearson says BPNC Distillery’s customers often are entrepreneurs from the restaurant and bar industries. Usually, these clients “want to take that concept that’s been working locally in their bar, and they want to take it on a nationwide level,” he says. For instance, Apple Pie Liqueur is owned by Travis Hasse, a bar owner in Wisconsin.

In addition to contract packaging, BPNC Distillery provides brokering services to help its clients get their formulas and labels approved by federal and state agencies. Pearson also sends samples of his clients’ products to wholesalers to generate interest.

“If I do [that successfully], I receive a brokering fee and run the product in that state,” he says. “We are allowing these people, for a small price, to be able to enter this market.”

Often, “There [are] a lot of people with good ideas,” Pearson says. “The barrier to entry [has] been distilleries [that] have not wanted to participate with these smaller contracts.”

Strong Fighters
Despite the hardships, Pearson has not regretted his move into the distillery business. “It’s a highly profitable industry,” the former Marine asserts, noting that the challenges have not scared him off. “I’ve been unable to leave any fights in my life.”

He also enjoys working alongside his wife at BPNC Distillery. “She started [here] when she was just 21,” Pearson remembers. “She’s been in New York in the dead of winter, trying to sell [gelatin] shots.” 

While he brokers and sells all of BPNC Distillery’s brands to wholesalers, “My wife brings in all the contracts [and] gets them to the point where we’re ready to bottle,” Pearson says. “[She’s] just been extremely strong.”

“My goal is to be one of the largest suppliers of alcohol beverages in the industry,” Pearson says. The company is preparing to expand its facility by 40,000 square feet to make room for 1,000 pallet positions.

This will allow BPNC to store alcohol for clients who do not have the room, Pearson says. 

In addition, while the company projected that it would have eight new contracts this year, it has already exceeded that goal. “We’ve already got 30 halfway through [this] year,” he reports.