The trade war is having a devastating impact on sales for a number of manufacturers who are working tirelessly to navigate the tariffs, but for one liqueur producer in particular, there is a need for production on both sides of the border, as it has lost virtually all of its Canadian business. Phillips Distilling Co., maker of Sour Puss, has moved part of its production line to Canada amidst slumping sales.
“In March, when the trade war began, we were suddenly removed from store shelves in most Canadian provinces,” Chief Executive of Phillips Distilling Co. Andy England said in an interview. “We literally lost our business in Canada.”
Despite President Trump’s best efforts to encourage investment in domestic manufacturing, companies like Sour Puss have no choice but to establish a Canadian footprint given that 98 percent of the one million bottles sold by the company last year were in Canada, which was representative of sales worth $23 million.
Now, the Minnesota-based operation will manufacture Sour Puss for the Canadian market from a facility in Montreal at the city’s Station 22 distillery with whom it established a multi-year agreement. Bottles are slated to hit store shelves next month, with orders already being placed. The company plans to roll out a ready-to-drink product under the Sour Puss brand early next year, which England noted would not have been possible without Station 22, as its St. Paul operation doesn’t have a can line—a major win for Canadian manufacturing in a very volatile and uncertain market.
