Victor George Spirits, a black-owned spirit brand, has acquired a majority interest in Palm Beach Distillery in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Palm Beach Distillery is home to Lost Harbour Spirits vodka, rum, and gin. The distillery was founded by Summer Piep and is Florida’s first female owned and operated distillery. An accountant by trade and a closet chemistry nerd by night Piep started her Florida distillery venture in 2017. She will remain as a partner and serve as Chief Operating Officer and Master Distiller.
“This is very exciting for our team at Victor George Spirits as we continue to expand our footprint across the United States,” added Jolyn Harvey. “We are rapidly adding to our quality portfolio of brands and will be acquiring additional distilleries with a plan to be the largest Black Owned spirits company in the world by 2025.”
Victor G. Harvey, an industry veteran and owner of nationally distributed Victor George Vodka “VG”, will be the Chairman of the Board and Director of Business Development. His daughter Jolyn Harvey, also a partner in the new venture and graduate of Ohio State University who has worked in the family business for the last three years will serve as Chief Marketing Officer of Palm Beach Distillery.
Victor George Looking at Future Distillery Acquisitions – Believes in Local Brands
“We are one of the few craft brands that have national distribution,” explained Victor George. “Our vision is to expand our footprint by acquiring additional distilleries that have brands that are specifically unique to their own locality. What’s interesting about Palm Beach Distillery is they have the line of Lost Harbor products, which are high quality products, that were getting some local recognition, so we saw an opportunity to partner with them. We ended up acquiring a majority stake in the company to expand some of the existing brands and create new brands.
“We are looking to do that as we go across the country. We are looking at the Atlanta market and the Detroit market for future acquisitions.
“Our main goal is to support local brands. The pandemic taught us that local people were the ones keeping the economy alive. And that open the eyes of a lot of restaurants and bars and retailers the value of local brands. Our vision is to bring some of those brands across the country under our umbrella and create a diverse portfolio of brands.”
Palm Beach Distillery will begin producing several Victor George Spirits products including a rye whiskey Pullman Porters 1867 and a bourbon Fort Mose’. Pullman Porters 1867, a six-year aged rye whiskey is named after former slaves that became the highest paid Black people of the 1860’s. Fort Mose’ is a bourbon named after the first city in America that Black people could live free and is located just outside St Augustine, Florida. These two new brands are scheduled to be released by Victor George Spirits in February 2022 in honor of Black History Month.
Victor George Plans Black History Month Groundbreaking for Old Sistrunk Distillery
The other big event for Victor George will be the groundbreaking for Old Sistrunk Distillery in Fort Lauderdale. Victor George through its development company Northeast 6th Development was approved by the Fort Lauderdale Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board who voted unanimously in November 2021 to provide $2,450,000 to help fund construction cost of a 15,000 square foot facility that will house a distillery, restaurant, cigar bar, whiskey lounge, co working space and a rooftop bar and lounge located on historic Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
VG Vodka is distributed in 44 states and available at most major retailers nationwide including Albertsons, Kroger, Trader Joes and more. It can also be found at several on and off premise locations throughout south Florida and as well as Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.
