Art of the Pitch - Article Series
The Art of the Pitch, a series of articles aimed at entrepreneurs that take actual business cases to show entrepreneurs best tactics and strategies for selling one’s business plan, ideas, etc.
Pushing the envelope
The apple ice wines produced by La Face cachée de la pomme, including the very popular Neige Première, are having a lot of success. This small Hemmingford-based business produces 300,000 bottles (200,000 of apple ice wine and 100,000 of still and sparkling ciders) with only 20 employees. The company exports some 25,000 bottles of apple ice wine to more than twenty countries.
Some entrepreneurs would be happy with sales like these, but not François Pouliot and his wife Stéphanie Beaudoin. Despite the 58 medals and other awards their products have garnered, these entrepreneurs want to go even farther. And to get there they will continue to push the envelope.
Pouliot and his wife have had to persevere right from the start. “Apple ice wine didn’t exist when we applied for a production license,” said Pouliot. To introduce apple ice wine to the world, he set up shop at Atwater Market on weekends. This former producer, who is well known in the music, movies and advertising domains and has hundreds of works to his credit, had another hit on his hands.
Good luck and bad luck
In promoting its products overseas, this small business was fortunate… in its misfortune.
Not welcome at the Vinexpo de Bordeaux (“because our products didn’t come from the vine,” according to Pouliot), this Quebec businessman managed to get an entrance pass anyway. His stand was vandalized and the Vinexpo big boss himself came to tear down the Quebec company’s posters. “But there were TV cameras there and we soon became the most popular stand at the show,” chuckled Pouliot.
The success of the owners of La Face cachée de la pomme is the result of a mix of innovation, luck and perseverance. The couple had an innovative product and a good story to tell, they knew how to exploit various themes (apples, frigid weather, Quebec, etc.) and they never took anything for granted.
Having a hit in other countries doesn’t necessarily make you a celebrity back home. “I was at the wine harvest festival, the Fête des vendanges, in Magog recently and nearly 70% of the people who came by my stand hadn’t heard of apple ice wine. Obviously, we still have a lot of work to do,” said Pouliot.
Reprinted from la Presse and translated by BDC with permission.