US-based Bourbon distiller Brother’s Bond was launched in 2021 by Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, two actors best known for their roles in TV series The Vampire Diaries, alongside drinks industry executive Vincent Hanna.
Earlier this year, the group raised $7.5m raise to support its expansion, bringing its total amount raised to date to $15m.
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The fresh funds were followed up this month by news of plans to enter Asia, Europe and the Middle East, via distribution tie-ups with Brand Venture for Europe, Nimbility in Asia and Craft & Culture in the UAE. Brother’s Bond whiskeys are available online in 60 countries but will now will also be sold on- and off-premise across the three continents.
Just Drinks sat down with CEO and co-founder Hanna to chat growth plans, tariffs and why he’s still upbeat about the global outlook for spirits and for American whiskey.
Fiona Holland (FH): How did Brother’s Bond come about and what’s the shareholding structure of the business?
Vincent Hanna (VH): Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley and myself are the owners and founders of the brand. The guys were on a show called Vampire Diaries, which started in 2009. Ian and Paul were the main characters on that show. They were best friends drinking Bourbon in every episode. They were known as brothers who drank a lot of Bourbon over an eight-year period on a show. On-screen, they bonded over Bourbon and, off-screen, they became best friends, bonding over Bourbon, so the logical next step was to start their own Bourbon.
I’ve been friends with them for a long time. I came from the alcohol industry, so they said let’s see if we can do this.
We believe in our brand but we believe in the industry and we believe it on a global level. That’s the excitement for us when our brand is the most followed [spirit] brand in the world on Instagram. It’s incredible… 60% of it is outside of the US. When we look at that, and we captured that data from the get-go, we knew that this was the opportunity and then we started lining up what markets follow, where our fans and our consumer demand is.
Where we want to discover and expose our brand to new consumers was the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Asia and India, and so that’s where we’re looking. We announced these three partnerships last week, so UK and Europe, UAE, for the Gulf regions, and then in Asia.
FH: Where in Asia will you be sold?
VH: Obviously, China is on the list. We’re going to see what happens, the tariffs clearly [are] going to have a little bit of an impact there. But Japan, Korea – massive – Taiwan, Singapore, so they’re big. Thailand is the same. I mean, these countries consume a lot of spirits and there’s an appetite for American whiskeys. There’s an appetite for not what’s already there.
FH: Have you already launched in those new markets? How are you planning to compete with the other major players there?
VH: Our first containers have arrived in in Abu Dhabi, in Dubai, that’s already started. We’ve got interest already going to India.
What’s interesting is the big guys are already there and [consumers] want other options. It’s not about the big brands, it’s not about the flashy brands, it’s not about the brands and money. Of course, all on-premise and retailers want to make money but they want to satisfy the customer and the customer doesn’t want to see what they’ve already seen. If we can say one thing about the next generation is that their attention span is very short.
When you’re looking in emerging markets for whiskey or Bourbon, there are very few options. We discovered that last year when we launched in Canada. We’re competing in the US with hundreds of Bourbons on the shelf. We went to Canada and you had 25 Bourbons on the shelf. Now you’re going into markets where there are five.
You start realising, wait a second, there’s way more opportunity to grab market share in new markets. We do it differently because, one, we have a different demographic. We’re immediately exposed to a lot more people in a different way.
FH: Given your mention of Canada, we should talk about tariffs. I’m guessing Brother’s Bond is no longer sold on shelves there for now. How do you expect the tariffs situation to develop?
VH: We’re very successful with the LCBO [Ontario]. We’re one of their best-selling brands, one of the best-selling Bourbons. Last Tuesday morning, we were taken off the shelf and that’s hard for me, too. I live in Canada, I love Canada, I love the US. I love my Bourbons. It wasn’t our choice to have that done. In the great state of Kentucky, they’re furious. I mean, we’re talking about billions of dollars that are going to be lost because of the decision of one person… It’s very minimalist and it’s thinking very short term but nobody wins in a tariff war. It’s been proven time and time again.
It’s going to happen everywhere and, then at some point, I would bet, based on what’s happening, it’s going to be [a] few months of we’re doing this and it comes back. But it upsets people, because people don’t really understand it, and the average consumer certainly understands that they’ve got to pay 25 or 50% more, but they don’t understand why.
Nobody wins in a tariff war. It’s been proven time and time again
There’s no exception to it. Every American company trying to sell in Canada is in the same boat. Every Canadian company trying to sell in the US is in the same boat. Ultimately, the consumer is going to have to decide, so what will happen? You see it all over. Canada is ‘buy Canada first’, which is the same thing that the US was trying to do… Well, if we all do that, then there’s no point of trade and we all know that you can’t build countries or economies without trade.
That’s why for us, we are maybe expanding faster than we had originally planned. When we were building out our ’25 and ’26 looking at how we would spread it out, I started looking in Q2/Q3 of last year, and I started realising… what are we waiting for? If we’re doing this with partners, we need to be able to support them. We have the product, we have the funds to be able to support it as well, and there’s interest there, we may as well strike when all the iron’s hot… and I say, ‘Okay, the revenue we would be getting in Canada, I’m going to get now from Japan,’ and so it’s going to offset, we’re still going to have substantial growth in our year.
FH: Do you have other markets on your radar?
VH: For sure, Australia, we’ve got a lot of demand from there. It’s a great whiskey market as well. It’s a big country, small population… but the per capita consumption is quite high and there’s a lot of interest in Bourbon, so that is also on our radar, and it’s going to be also taken car ofe with our partners in the in Asia, who also help with developing Australia.
What’s very interesting is, because of our social media awareness… we’ve been able to sell online. We’re sold in over 60 countries where people can buy our product online already. We already see, look, South Africa wants it all of a sudden, Brazil wants it. Are those markets we’re going to go after right away? No but we can feed it. If an importer comes in, a distributor, and says, ‘Hey, we’d really like to do this and build this out,’ we’d rather support them and say ‘Okay, this is what we can give you to do it.’
FH: You closed a funding round earlier this year. Is this your final round? Is the business profitable?
VH: We’re profitable and we’re growing. It would be dependent on what our goals would be in, say, three to five years, if it’s going to change.
Right now, we just partnered in the US with Banfi Vintners… an incredibly prestigious company that didn’t have any spirits in their portfolio and so now everywhere they’re selling amazing Brunello, they’ll be selling Brother’s Bond with it. That’s something we’re looking at, those are the kinds of partnerships.
We were very realistic. We’re a small company. We don’t have incredibly deep pockets. We do things on kind of a shoestring budget. We all work really hard. Ian and Paul same way. I mean, they’re involved in everything on day-to-day basis. Ian is the blender, makes all our whiskey. Paul is a very creative guy, has designed all of our labels, the story that goes with it, and that’s something we’re not going to change.
FH: Where is Brother’s Bond produced?
VH: Depending on the whiskeys that we make, we have different distillers that we use and blend different aged Bourbons from those. We’re working from different parts of the country. We have one which is our regenerative Bourbon, which is really something special.
We’re looking at different places around the US where they have regenerative grains. That’s important to us. We’re about using American grains to make our Bourbon and to use grains that come from the best farms that are using the best practice they can for the land.
We work with MGP [Ingredients], we work with Southern Distilling Company in North Carolina and we’re with Tennessee Distilling in Columbia, Tennessee. We’re always looking at different things and tasting different things. We’re not looking necessarily to build our own distillery and do that. We’re looking at how do we make great whiskeys for consumers to enter the category and fall in love with the brand and trust the brand.
FH: Is the US still your largest market?
VH: US, and it will always be the dominant market. I want to say 95% of American whiskey is sold in America. But I do think [in terms of markets with future potential]… the big one for me, looking at consumption of whiskey, is India. The wealth factor, there are more and more people becoming middle class, which means they have more to spend. Consumer products is going to be something that those who never did buy it can buy it and those who did buy it now are buying higher. Right now, 70% drink Indian single malt at $5 a bottle but then you’re getting more and more who are drinking, like I started, with Macallan 50, or Glenfiddich 18. Whatever it is that they want to drink, they’ll spend more. American whiskey’s got nothing there and that to me is a massive opportunity.
FH: How do you see the whiskey category faring over the next year?
VH: There’s an oversupply, which for a brand is great when you’re a buyer. It will correct itself. I was hopeful that it would correct itself faster than I think it will.
A lot of things happening, especially in the last six weeks, might have some impact on that. I would be more concerned if I was a massive, very recognised brand, because yes, I do think that they are going to see it.
I do think that the overall whiskey market will correct itself. I do think that there will always be interest in whiskey
The lack of interest in new consumers in those brands and then the market itself, so the bigger guys are definitely going to get hurt the most but it’ll also take up the smaller ones that maybe never should have gotten in the business. I like to think that we’re just past that point where we’re big enough that we’ll survive and we don’t have those same massive overheads.
As a business, we’ve always believed, let’s test it, build the brand, and do that before we go out and build a $50m distillery, and put $50m down of Bourbon. We’re not in that position. I do think that the overall whiskey market will correct itself. I do think that there will always be interest in whiskey. It’s in many cultures across the globe. It’s not going away.
Listen, ten years ago, they said cannabis would be the biggest thing in the world. Show me people who made big money in cannabis… You can’t compare alcohol to cannabis and say ‘Yes, it’s going to grow and it’s going to take out this.’ You’re not even one generation in yet and you’re saying that and it’s not even legal in 95% of the world. We’re far away and in the developed markets. For Canada, sure. Is it competition? Of course, anytime there’s something new, people move into it. Is it permanent? Who knows?
I’m still bullish on spirits. Would I bet on it? Absolutely, I would long-term. I think that alcohol will always be here. The world is developing at such a rate, there are people who haven’t had opportunities to consume things. I mean, there are 8bn people on this planet, there’s so much opportunity… You just have to be new and quick and nimble and give people what they want to try. Don’t try and repeat the same thing over again.
