Growing quickly, Cider Corp recently announced that it signed a new distribution deal to further the Mesa, Arizona company’s brand.
“Our distribution strategy is based on our mission: Drink Great Cider. Honor Great Sacrifice,” said co-owner Josh Duren. “We want to make the highest quality cider available to everyone in our state. We also want to share to our guests that there are thousands of men and women who live in our neighborhoods, who you may sit next to in our taproom, that are oftentimes struggling with reintegrating into society and finding a new identity after sacrificing for our freedom in the military.”
Duren said they have always known that it would never be beneficial for the four-year-old company to stay small, “our core mission is so much bigger,” he said, so they started with self-distribution and sales so that they could educate retail outlets on a product they weren’t familiar with and also share the cidery’s story and mission.
READ MORE: Cider Corner: The Move to Self Distribution
”We grew quickly, so we started working with a boutique wholesaler to help with fulfillment,” Duren explained. ”This year we’ve partnered with the state’s largest distributor to help us make our cider available to everyone in the state.
”We did this knowing we had created a strong foundation with our retailers and our taproom guests who had been here and who understood the weight and importance of our mission.”
The biggest step for Cider Corps was about forming a relationship with a partner like Hensley Beverage Company to see the cidery’s mission fully realized.
”We looked at who had the resources to help us share that message – who had the track record of supporting the things we value most in our mission,” Duren said. “We are still very much a ‘cider desert’ in Arizona, and new markets are really in our backyard.
“Social media has been helpful in being able to use analytics to target demographics that would be interested in what we are doing. We have spent time at in-person opportunities like beer festivals. We also have hosted our own cider festival and hope to do so again.”
The focus on a retail level has always been the brand’s three flagship styles: Sangin Sangria, Mango Foxtrot, and P.O.G.
”We believe these styles best represent what we are creating in craft cider,” Duren said. “The biggest adjustment we’ve made hasn’t necessarily been to our portfolio, but in adding packaging so that our opportunities could significantly grow.”
Duren, a medically retired Marine veteran, started making cider with his brother Josh Duren as a therapeutic hobby as he recovered from traumatic brain injuries suffered while serving in Afghanistan. The brothers opened Cider Corps in Downtown Mesa in 2017 and it is Arizona’s largest craft cidery.
The pandemic was, and in many ways still is, the biggest reason for the adjustments the cidery has made.
”When we started four years ago there were no other cideries in Arizona, so meeting the demand in a state that is a ’cider desert’ has always been a key piece of growth,” Duren said. ”We had been looking into package to meet the demand of the market.
”Then the pandemic hit and it became the ultimate catalyst for the move.”
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