Steve Yeng, co-founder with his wife, Brittany, of Skrewball peanut butter whiskey, was born in Cambodia following the Cambodian genocide, who left Over 1.7 million people Death in the hands of the Red Khmer. When Steve was a year old, he received a polio diagnosis. His right leg has permanently paralyzed and his parents asked for medical aid through the border in Thailand.
“We entered a refugee camp, essentially a prison where we could not go out,” explains Steve Entrepreneur. “We were queuing for food and water. After six years, which is long enough for these types of camps, we were sponsored to (move) in California by a couple who wanted to do a randomness act.”
The family settled in San Diego. Steve’s parents obtained a job in a local donut store at a house pâté from his primary school, where he met Brittany for the first time. The couple began to go out together in high school and stayed together when they were continuing different paths after the diploma. She received her master’s degree in chemistry and attended the law faculty. He jumped into the catering trade.
Image credit: Walking Eagle Photography. Steve and Brittany Yeng.
Steve’s parents had continued to buy the donut store in which they had worked, and he followed their entrepreneurial traces. He and his brother Scott opened Ob Noodle House in 2008 and the portfolio company in 2016.
“We realized that we had really built two separate worlds,” said Brittany, “where (Steve) returned home at 4:30 p.m., and I was going to work at 4:30 am and we were waiting for our first daughter.”
“We used this oppressed mentality (and said):” Let’s do it. “”
The couple had played with the idea of a new project that would allow more time together: starting a brand of peanut butter whiskey. The peanut butter, which Steve and his family often received in food baskets during their first days in the United States, was a favorite flavor. He had experienced adding to all kinds of things: wings, noodles, fried rice – then Jameson.
The Yengs tinkered with the peanut butter whiskey recipe to make it stable, which finally meant landing on the one who was not creamy, but mixing and good for cocktails. Despite the different lives they led at the time, “peanut butter is the glue that really gathered us,” explains Steve. The duo has grasped their “now or never a moment” and Started a business.
Image credit: Skrewball graceful peanut butter whiskey
Yengs peanut butter whiskey had a solid fans base in their small community of Ocean Beach, San Diego, but they faced more skepticism on the part of investors and research and development companies. At one point, an industry consultant completely discouraged the business, saying that they seemed to be a beautiful family who should not spend all of his savings on a non-viable commercial idea.
“They all laughed,” recalls Steve. “Everyone was a skeptic. Outside mentality (And says): “Let’s do it.” “”
“He finally clicked with us that the product itself was a stranger,” added Brittany. “It was not only we who were foreign. It was this peanut butter whiskey. The first time people hear it, they say to themselves:” I don’t know. “So that this story of product and combined origin to summarize (perfectly) the brand.”
“We wanted to own it and put the black sheep at the top of the group.”
Having already perfected the brand’s recipe through tests and errors, the yengs have looked into their “outsider” status with regard to their brandAlso. The Skrewball label offers a large black sheep surrounded by small white sheep. “We are looking (being a black sheep) as our superpower,” explains Brittany. “We wanted to own it and put the black sheep at the top of the group.” The founders also note a double meaning in the name “Skrewball”: evoking the strange but also the hope of finding your “Krew”.
Skrewball officially launched in San Diego in 2018 – and the Botté company was a massive success. The brand only remained San Diego that year because it has not yet been able to keep the pace of the production necessary to develop. Independent alcohol stores like Keg N Bottle, Newport Farms and Crest Liquor were crucial for the early Skrewball success, according to the founders. The same goes for the San Diego Bar and Restaurant Community, which “immediately brought Skrewball and treated it as their own brand”.
Image credit: Skrewball graceful peanut butter whiskey
However, some opponents considered significant victory as a flash in the pan, remembers the founders. But when the brand launched in California as a whole, it has reproduced its successful counters. In the end, Skrewball has reached national distribution In the 50 states in January 2020. “We were the fastest to a million cases for any brand of more than $ 20 in history,” said Steve. “No one expected it.”
“In 2020, the only brands that became faster than us in a dollar sales were Tito and Hennessy.”
Of course, like most growing companies, Skrewball had to take up serious challenges along the way. In the midst of the brand’s expansion, the longest closure of the government in the history of the United States animates the process of acquiring appropriate labels. Before 2020, the company was faced with shortages of production and important bottles which almost bankrupt it. There were times when the founders “returned home without electricity because we could not pay the bill.”
However, the yengs consider these obstacles even the catalyst of the possible skrewball sustainable successexplaining that they helped them prepare for the pandemic years. Skrewball built a surplus of bottles and dry products at the end of 2019, which enabled the company to develop and meet demand when global shortages have reached.
Take the road when many large suppliers stayed at home were another key movement that stimulated the company. “I lived on the road – safely – and I promoted Skrewball personally, supporting the bars and open restaurants,” explains Steve. “This brought a lot of awareness of Skrewball at a time when few other brands were present. In 2020, the only brands that grew up faster than us in a dollar sales were Tito and Hennessy.”
The couple insists listen to brand customers.
“We are still doing tasting,” says Brittany. “We were just on a market. Keep this feedback loop to make sure you are always relevant to your customer, offering them value and meeting their needs (is important). It is easy to take an office and forget why you really do what you do.”
Image credit: Skrewball graceful peanut butter whiskey
“You must be able to adapt. Adapt to changes and overcome these obstacles.”
Now Skrewball is a Spirit brand of several million dollars, recognized worldwide. In March 2023, it looked at the right time to find a strategic partner for the company. “My daughters grew up and I didn’t want to miss it,” said Steve. The founders decided to join Pernod Ricard, confident in the values that reflected theirs. The Wine and Spirits Company has acquired majority participation in Skrewball. The Yengs also appreciated a little moment in a circle: their brand had started with peanut butter in the shots of Jameson, one of the spirits of Pernod Ricard.
Yengs are impatiently awaiting the pursuit of the brand growth – and continuing to gain all skeptics.
“(We are still) proving that these skeptics badly,” explains Steve. “(When people hear for the first time, they are like),” I don’t know. “” But then they try it, their face lights up, and they present it to another friend or member of the family, who generally has the same reaction – and it is the one who “never ages”.
Steve and Skrewball beat the chances they arrive at this stadium. “When I caught the polio, there is not much to expect from you, especially in Cambodia,” explains Steve. “When I was in this refugee camp, I remember (I wonder) For what? I was a healthy child; Everything I needed was suddenly, and none of this would have happened. (But what seems) an obstacle, looking back, can be a blessing. You must be able to adapt. Adapt To change and overcome these obstacles. “”