Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the Accelerated Degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the owner and founder of Dalton Distillery and Responsibly Brands, Chuck Butler. Welcome.

Chuck Butler: All right. Thank you and thank you. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Well, let’s start with Dalton Distillery. Tell us about it.

Chuck Butler: All right. I started the distillery in 2013. I was working I was primarily in law enforcement, so I had to work a long hours. And during that time, my dad, he got a false diagnosis of cancer. So it was frustrating for me. I’m working long hours and not spending time with my family. I had a son. He was around eight years old at the time, so I thought I should invest my what little money I have into a business. And I was betting that people wouldn’t quit drinking alcohol. So I ended up starting that so that I could spend more time with my dad and my son.

Lee Kantor: So how does somebody go about even starting a distillery? Like, had you known anybody that had done that? Had you seen it in operation?

Chuck Butler: No, no, I only visited, like, uh, Jack Daniel’s distillery now. Um, and really, uh, I believe the reason why we’re still in business today is that I was just too ignorant to the fact of giving up and refusing to give up and working. Because most people that own a distillery has a lot of working capital, and that’s something that we didn’t have, but we just fought through it pushed. Because if you look, most people that own a distillery, they have you have to have cash flow, you have to have working capital. And I’ve just done all the paperwork myself. I rented a small space and we was planning on being like a small boutique craft distillery where people would come in, visit, talk with us. During the Covid deal. That changed a lot of operations that, you know, people couldn’t come in, we couldn’t do this. And we was, uh, requested by the state and the federal government to make hand sanitizer. We started doing that, and then we ended up getting a lot of good media attention from donating. Well, like we donated over $180,000 worth of materials. So that was a lot of money for my little company. We donated that and really not even keeping track of the funds we was just doing because it was so chaotic. We done that and we started building our brand responsibly. Now we’re not open to the public. We’re strictly manufacturing, building our brand scent, uh, getting cases made up and sending it out to the district distribution companies. So we have, we sell our brand to Georgia Crown and, and Tennessee Crown both. So our brand responsibly is available throughout Georgia and throughout Tennessee. We’re excited about and proud about now.

Lee Kantor: When you started the distillery, how did you decide which type of liquor to produce?

Chuck Butler: Um, really my my dad, he he only wanted to make corn whiskey. That was it. That’s all he was going to make. And when people drive around and you talk with people, they say, oh, they love moonshine. And that’s exciting. And that’s what a lot of people, when they come into a distillery, that’s what they want to taste. That’s what they want to buy. However, it’s totally different whenever you’re going on a commercial scale and whenever you go to a liquor store, most liquor stores, they’re allergic to the word, uh, moonshine. You know, they, they want a vodka. They want whiskeys, um, aged product. That’s a huge capital investment for us. So that’s where the shift came about is whenever we was making moonshine. Dalton is, um, a large city, but it’s really small to support a boutique distillery where, you know, there’s really not enough foot traffic for us to support that. So over the past 12 years, I’ve rewritten my business plan probably 25 times because of, you know, looking, pivoting and finding out what works and what doesn’t. And the moonshine is great if you have a good location and people can come in sample and they’re going to buy in Georgia. You can only sell up to 1 to 3 bottles. Where in Tennessee you’re not limited on a daily amount. So we was only confined to Georgia sales because we’re only based in Dalton, Georgia. Um, that’s whenever we decided to change from moonshine to vodka because that’s what the distributor and that’s what our main customers, the liquor store owners and the patrons of those liquor stores wanted was vodka.

Lee Kantor: So then once you made the switch to vodka, how do you go about making a brand that stands out amongst the sea of other vodkas?

Chuck Butler: Uh, you know, one, we are still working on that. You know what? Uh, we’ve always been under-capitalized. And of the main thing that I’ve realized about being under-capitalized is that helps bring out your creativity or it does, uh, ours, you know, and that’s why we come up with the name. Like whenever I was in law enforcement, I was a police chief. I would speak out, go to governor’s office, highway safety conferences and meetings on a monthly basis and do, uh, press releases and speak with the media. And I’d always say, please drink responsibly. Um, that name, that slogan that’s really helped us where it resonates with people. A lot of the stores think it is a little comical, and they love the branding behind that, where our slogan is we help people drink responsibly and economically. Um, well, you know, as far as a craft distillery located in Dalton, Georgia, we are one of the most economically priced vodkas out there because we care about margins and volume. Like we really cut our margins down. And, you know, one of the things about running low margins is it really hurts whenever we have tariffs applied and when it hurts with all these, uh, high inflated freight because of, um, our compromised fuel increases, that really helps us adjust and look about trying to add other SKUs, you know, and we’re constantly maneuvering and looking about adapting. And our main product is always our main thought down the road is how can we make sure that our product is always top quality, high and quality at an economical price because that’s what we try to be as a, a good high quality, value based brand.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned having, uh, partners and distributors. Can you educate the listener a little bit about that? Because it isn’t as simple as. Oh, I think I’ll just call all the liquor stores and then they’re going to place my brand. You have to go through a middleman, right, in order to sell liquor.

Chuck Butler: Yes. In Georgia is called a three tier system. So the me the manufacturer supplier, we are required by Georgia state law to sell to a wholesaler or some people call it distributor. They’re the alcohol distributor. So I have to sell to the distributor. The distributor is the second tier the distributor sales to on premise. Um, which is restaurants, bars or liquor stores or off premise. Your, uh, your liquor stores. So we’re working as fast as possible. Like one of the things that, you know, if we’re giving advice to somebody building an alcohol brand. The only contract between the supplier or the brand owner and the distribution company is a thing called 8105 through the State of Georgia Department of Revenue. They’re the ones that says, all right, your brand is now assigned to this distributor, and that distributor has the rights to sell your brand throughout the entire state. And, and the brand owner is only allowed to sell it at the manufacturing facility, which in Georgia, you don’t have enough volume, as far as I know, at any place to really support a brand. They don’t have enough volume to really support a distillery operation. So you have to be out in liquor stores. So in Georgia you have 1300 liquor stores. We’re only in 389 stores and we are growing. So what we do is a little different. We’re not spending a lot of money on advertisement. We ride with our, uh, distribution company sales team. We follow up, we call our liquor stores. And what we’re trying to do is because we was well known with customer service and providing a customer experience, we’re trying to provide that customer service to the liquor store, whatever they need from responsibly brands. Our team is here to support them and help them.

Chuck Butler: And then whenever we’re speaking with their patrons, if they’re looking for a vodka, we are more than happy and excited to tell them about responsibly. Vodka that is a Georgia grown brand. It’s award winning. We’ve won several awards with Georgia trustees, Wine and Spirits at, um, the, um, and then SIP international and, you know, countless brands that we’ve sent in to win these awards and we try to provide that customer experience with just a little sampling taste in that, uh, tasting experience at the liquor stores whenever we’re invited. So that’s something we try to do Friday and Saturdays. Visiting these stores. And that helps us where we have one. Our main store throughout Georgia and Tennessee is Augusta Liquor. They sell 25 cases of our half gallons every week. Every week they order a 25 case drop. And having customers from relationships like that, most of them know to call us, and we’re here to help. If for some reason it got slow, we’d show up and we talk with them to try to get that excitement inside that liquor store. And we do postings of on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. My son, he has a a growing account. It’s at at drink responsibly vodka on TikTok, um, where we offer, uh, blind taste tests and try to get that excitement going. And people is really shocked whenever they’re talking with somebody representing a brand and they realize that they’re talking to the owner. They’re normally very surprised and really impressed. And it’s flattering for us. And we know that for us too. We don’t take this lightly. Every day we wake up and that’s what we live and breathe and think of is our building, our brand, and how can we take it to the next level.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that, um, the first step when you start a distillery or have a liquor brand in Georgia is to partner with those wholesalers. Um, does your wholesaler reach all 1300 liquor stores and then they’re just not placed you in the other thousand? Or how does that work? Or do you have to get a different wholesaler for the rest of the state?

Chuck Butler: Well, um, you know, we’re lucky we’re with Georgia Crown. So they’re a huge player. So Georgia Crown is so large, they’re representing, uh, thousands of brands. So if you own a if you own a liquor store anywhere in Georgia, you’d have to buy from them because they carry such large brands. Some of the things is some of your smaller liquor stores, they never heard of us, and they’re worried about taking on a new brand, which is understandable. They’ve never heard of us. Others, you know, for it to be economical, uh, for the investment, they have to invest like a 25 cases so that liquor store has to foot the money to buy 25 cases day one. So, you know, they are worried thinking, hey, is this going to sell? You know, they, they, they don’t may not know me and they don’t 100% trust me that we are going to send people out and help that store sell if it’s not automatically driven and automatically have a customer base. So, um, We are lucky that we are growing as fast as we are, um, to let you know, you know, last year we was I don’t like talking negative at all, so I’ll just touch a little bit. The reason why we know more about this, uh, Georgia brand transfer is if you’re with a wholesaler in Georgia that you don’t like, that you don’t agree with, you can try to work it out as adults and do a brand trade or brand transfer, but the current holder has to agree with it and participate.

Chuck Butler: We was with one, um, wholesaler that held her brand and wasn’t paying on time, wasn’t moving the volume that we agreed on. And I had to make an official complaint and do a contested brand transfer due to nonpayment. And this started in February of 2024. And from what the Georgia Department of Revenue told us that had never happened, that a brand transfer went in a contested brand transfer due to nonpayment. It went on and went on for over 220 days, where our company, a very small company, didn’t have orders, didn’t have sales, and we was owed over $50,000. So that put a financial burden on us. I, I am a high school dropout. And so I had to study and look, and I’ve represented myself in the brand hearing and these, this, uh, former distribution company hired a good lawyer and they went in and we had a hearing that took about four hours. And, uh, we proved our case and we was able to get it removed, which is very rare to have a contested brand transfer and win the removal. So now we went from one private small company that only had a place in 180 stores. Now we’re in 389 stores just in five months. With Georgia Crown.

Lee Kantor: So it’s it’s important to choose your distributor wisely.

Chuck Butler: A in Georgia specifically, you know, you need to study it and find out like one of the things that we started offering, if people go to Dalton distillery.com and they build a brand with us, they can look at that and request. And we’re always happy and excited to engage with somebody that’s interested in building a brand. And, uh, we can, we have a consultation fee to where we can either give them guidance on how to build a brand. We can, um, do all the regulatory items if they’re wanting to only build a brand and not build a distillery, and we can actually do a white label brand inside our distillery for them. Um, whereas a white glove where they don’t have to do anything and we help push and promote it and help them find the right distributor because we understand how important it is.

Lee Kantor: And so if they want to do a vodka brand or other liquors.

Chuck Butler: They want to do a vodka brand of tequila brand if they want to do whiskey, um, if they want to do beer or wine, we, we do consultation on that. If they want to do iced coffee or CBD, we help build brands. It don’t have to be in the alcohol industry. We’re able to help people because we’ve, you know, I’ve got now 12 years experience of hustle and it’s hard for me to turn it off where we’re constantly working and, um, helping people be creative and helping people show like there’s a lot of people out there that don’t care to take your money and don’t care about results. If I take somebody’s money, I want to make sure that they get their money’s worth plus some, because I want them to come back and continue working with me. That’s the way we do business.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? You just need more, uh, distribution into all the liquor stores, you need more brand awareness. Um, and then you said you’re primarily in Georgia and Tennessee right now.

Chuck Butler: Yes, yes. So, so like, you know, breaking into all 1300 liquor stores will be a little difficult for us because, you know, if you notice, there are some smaller distribution companies where they, they don’t have 25 cases of very few brands. So if for it to be really economical for the patron, that’s where they’re limited to. So that’s, that puts some people off. Um, then just naturally grow and continue and growing our social media accounts, continuing visitation and, uh, doing market work. Whenever we have time, we go out and we visit and we’ll visit 18 to 20 stores and in the liquor store and talking with them, showing them that we care about adding value to their store, helping them add a Georgia grown. Brand that we’re passionate about building and helping it sell. Um, you know, these economic times, a lot of people are looking about trading down and trading down from a well-known national brand. And some of the customers that we’ve gotten, you know, from ten years ago to now, they’ve only come to us for either thinking, well, I’m going to trade down today because I can save a few dollars. And then they stay with us because of our high quality. And they’re really shocked and surprised where it is a little comical, where so many people are shocked that we’re able to sell it at the price that we are, you know, um, and what we’re getting at is I grew up somewhat, uh, on a, I wouldn’t say poverty at all, but we’re not much above poverty level and we care about the cost of people, you know, and we want where people can buy two handles of ours versus most national brands of vodka. Plus our story and the excitement that we have and the engagement that we offer. Whenever somebody makes a comment on our, on our, uh, videos or on social media. I’m not good at posting videos, but I’m trying to learn to help build that because, uh, I mean, that’s one of, I’m sure that you’ve been in the radio industry for a while, but you noticed how strong and how important social media is.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Now, um, uh, how many other are there a lot of, uh, Georgia vodkas out there?

Chuck Butler: Um, as far as I know, there’s whenever I started the, my distillery, uh, it was in 2013, I think that there was, I think I was the 12th or the 13th distillery in Georgia.

Lee Kantor: Mhm.

Chuck Butler: All right. Now that, you know, they’ve been a few come and go, but I think now they are. I want to think 16 distilleries and most of them end up doing a. They start doing moonshine, but then they gravitate to. The, uh, vodka, the, the. This is the main thing that a lot of people think that vodka is. It has to be made out of potatoes. All right. Uh, Tito’s. You’ve definitely heard of Tito’s. You’ve probably tried it. That’s made out of 100% corn. Uh, kettle one. I think it’s made out of, uh, barley. All right. Uh, gray goose is wheat, so, uh, very few brands use potatoes. I started to try to use potatoes, but the fermentation, I enjoy the smell of fermented corn, you know, and, um, it’s an easier access for us to buy, you know, 200 0 pounds of corn and grind it than potatoes. Plus the smell of fermented potatoes is not as, uh, or I’m not as used to it as fermented corn.

Lee Kantor: Right. So you responsibly brands uses corn.

Chuck Butler: 100% corn. And most of the brands in Georgia, you know, they use corn as well. That’s one of the, um, that’s one of our main crops in, in America is corn.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about Dalton Distillery and responsibly brands, is there a website? What’s the best way to, to find you guys?

Chuck Butler: Yeah, they, they can look at, uh, if they use TikTok, they can go to drink responsibly vodka, send a message, me or my son, if they post a comment, uh, me or my son will do a comment. If they send a direct message, that will be my son. He’ll be he’s the only one that has access to it. And he will reply to the direct message. Um, also LinkedIn, I’ve got like, uh, 27000 connections and I reply to as many as fast as I can on LinkedIn. So they do that at Chuck Butler uh, at, uh, and they’ll say Dalton Distillery on my LinkedIn connection. Uh, or they go to our website, Dalton distillery.com. They look at that and they, uh, look at growing the business, uh, doing business with us. If they’re interested in making a brand, if they’re looking at and they have some type of interest, we’ll look about being as professional and high quality and delivering them, um, as best a service that we can anybody.

Lee Kantor: Well, Chuck, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Chuck Butler: Well, well, thank you Lee, and, uh, I appreciate you and your team. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.