Business View Magazine | May 2019

155 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2019 LOUI S I ANA SP I R I TS Group USA is a U.S. importer and marketer of alcoholic beverages, headquartered in New York City. Formed in 2013, the company is a subsidiary of SPI Group based out of Luxembourg, one of the world’s most dynamic wine and spirits organizations. “By then, we were up to about 15,000 cases a year in seven states. They liked what we were doing and said they wanted to start distributing our product. In July, 2018, they bought us out. So, now, we’re a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stoli, and we’re expanding rapidly throughout the world.” According to Murphy, expanding into a market dominated by several giant distillers was helped not only by its acquisition by a major distributor, but also by the preceding worldwide boom in craft beer. “That was a huge benefit to the young craft distilling movement, because you had this group of consumers who were already experimenting with small batch, small volume, non- mainstream products,” he explains. “And that gave us an open door to expand.” Another advantage, he believes, is the distillery’s proximity to the sugarcane fields. “Rum is one of those universal spirits that can be made anywhere but you can’t grow sugarcane everywhere. There is something to be said about driving throughout the area