If you’re a whiskey lover, you are in for a treat!
Jason Ridgel is a Black entrepreneur who just signed a historic partnership deal with a Kentucky-based Black-owned distributor for his whiskey brand, Guidance Whiskey.
With this power move, the Tennessee-based whiskey has been selling like hotcakes! Founded in 2018, Guidance Whiskey is a premium craft whiskey that’s produced in small batches to fully ensure its taste and quality would appeal to consumers’ preferences, particularly African Americans.
According to BlackBusiness.com, you can find Guidance Whiskey online for delivery in 43 states as well as on the shelves in stores in Kentucky, Florida, California, Georgia, and Tennessee. Now, with this partnership deal, the products will be on the shelves of 50 more retail locations in five states, which includes 10 stores in Kentucky.
Ridgel shares how he had to go through a lot of “nos” before achieving such a big “yes.”
“I was told ‘no’ by a bunch of distributors,” he said in an interview with Jacksonville Free Press. “They told us that [we] would never sell because the market was saturated and there were tens of thousands of spirits.”
That’s when Legacy Wine and Spirits took a chance on the company. The owners, Kelvin Young Sr. and Djuan Ditto said their goal as Black-owned distributors has been to give wider opportunities to new Black-owned brands.
“Once we met with Jason and actually had a conversation about his vision for Guidance and the whole black-owned spirits movement, we knew that we definitely wanted to play a part in that and also be a distribution partner for Guidance,” said Young.
We love to see more Black-owned spirits brands getting their shine and can’t wait to get our hands on some Guidance Whiskey.
