The Next Step

With each passing day we move a step closer to our goal of launching, Mendis ultra-luxury clear brandy produced from coconut in the US. Over the past week we have brought in consultants to assist us on our distribution side in teaming up with suitable distributors in our target markets. The US distribution system to the retailer is unique over all other countries, in that it operates on a 3-tier system. Mendis can only operate as an importer, whereby we import and bottle our own product which is then transported into our bonded warehousing. From there we supply to distributors, whom basically determine when, where and how our product is sold. All marketing and supply chain management issues are left in our hands, while the distributor acts as our sales channel.

On top of this 3-tier system, as an importer we must carry a Federal importers permit, along with state licenses to supply to distributors in each of our desired target states. We must make sure to protect our branding through trademarks and have each respective product we propose to sell in the US; laboratory tested, category approved and finally label approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). So, as you can see (or read in this case), the US alcohol market is one highly legislated market.

Our key to success in this market basically lies within our marketing/branding strength and product positioning, which I feel we have done an excellent job on over the past 12 months, prior to launching. Most start-up alcohol companies will dash into the US market head first with no prior marketing or solid business knowledge of how to conduct or carry out business successfully over the long term in this highly competitive and saturated market.

One thing at Mendis I pride our company on, besides our unique product, is our top executive team we have put together. Having a highly seasoned board of directors to assist in directing the business provides peace of mind to me from that perspective. Over the next few weeks we will be focusing our attention on firming up our supply chain management and distribution operations.

One of the biggest pitfalls of businesses entering this market is poor inventory management; over supply and your left with excess stock burning a hole in your pocket, under supply and you run the risk of burning your distributors sales channel operations and ultimately losing them as a sales channel partner. It's bad enough covering a big marketing budget and operation costs, but to have excessive storage costs due to poor supply chain management is most definitely not wanted. So we are really wanting to finely balance this side of our operations.

Although it may look like things are at a stand still to the outsider, in house at Mendis everyone is working long hours making sure we have our I’s dotted and T’s crossed so when the time comes everything runs smoothly. Hopefully soon I can start releasing firm dates for our launch and promotion events, so stay tuned.


Chris S. Richardson
President
Mendis International