Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Meyers
Josh, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Our story begins on a beautiful summer day in June, 2017. Weekend brunch is a New York City ritual, and we decided to take it outside and planned all week to have a picnic with our family and friends at a park where we lived downtown.
Preparing for the picnic brunch, we all split up the responsibilities – who would bring the snacks, who would bring the booze and fixings for Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas, and who would bring the picnic blanket. It all sounded so easy.
Once we all got to the park, the party was ready to start… or at least that’s what we thought. The idea of the perfect picnic brunch became impossible. Making cocktails while wrestling with the blanket, cooler, food, champagne, orange juice, vodka, and dogs proved just too much. And by the time one cocktail was ready, the ice had already begun to melt.
Meanwhile, someone in our group brought canned wine – in 2017, RTDs / single-serve drinks didn’t really exist and seeing this novel format made us think “what about a Bloody Mary in a can”?
When we realized there were no Bloody Mary or Mimosa cans on the market, we decided to launch our new company, Picnic Brunch, in July 2017.
We spent the next few years focused on designing our products and packaging, officially launching to our first market in October 2020.
In 2021, we added our Bellini, and now our products can be found in nearly 2,000 stores across the Southeast including Publix and Walmart.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! If I could go back in time, I might advise myself to launch a different kind of business!
I did not come from the alcohol industry, and the learning curve in this industry can be steep. There are lots of rules and regulations that can be completely different from state to state and sometimes even county to county (labeling/packaging requirements, taxation, etc.), a three-tier distribution system that can sometimes be very difficult for small brands to manage, manufacturing challenges (can shortages, fluctuating labor/ingredient costs, unpredictable demand in and coming out of COVID) and the typical brand awareness headwinds that lesser-known brands like Picnic Brunch experience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m the CEO and a co-founder of Picnic Brunch, a brand of brunch cocktails founded in NYC and available in markets throughout the Southeast US, including SC. At Picnic Brunch, I’m a jack-of-all-trades given we are such a small company. Despite that small size, I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done to get our brand this far. Not many beverage brands of our size can boast that their products are on the shelves of stores like Publix and Walmart, not to mention the 1,000+ independent and bar/restaurant locations that carry Picnic Brunch. We have four employees – my father, brother, and a friend of 15+ years – and the fact that this success has been realized while building the company alongside them is the cherry on top.
What matters most to you?
I have two demanding jobs – Picnic Brunch is not my primary job – while balancing a family (my wife and I have a son and a daughter, and a dog), and it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. There have certainly been a lot of sacrifices my wife and I have had to make since launching Picnic Brunch, and a lot of lessons have come with that experience.
Making the most of every day and spending valuable time with people I care about are paramount to me and create a sense of joy and fulfillment. I love to experience new things with my family, and that has led to a love of creating products that can be a part of others’ efforts to do the same.
Pricing:
- $12.99-$14.99 per four pack
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.picnicbrunch.com
- Instagram: @picnicbrunch
- Facebook: @picnicbrunch
