Tampa liquor store chain grows revenue 25%, store count 50%

With the rise of online shopping and streaming services, standing in line for any kind of special release might sound like a thing of the past. 

Unless you’re a whiskey connoisseur. 

Then you might find yourself among the crowd outside at one of six Liquor Depot locations in Tampa, waiting for a single barrel release from a top name like Buffalo Trace or Jack Daniels. 

“I think the record is 16 hours in front of the store,” says second generation Liquor Depot owner Trey Lawson. “I mean, people are getting there at like midnight. I think the earliest anyone's ever gotten there was 4 p.m. the day before.” 

The pivot to hyping single barrel releases is just one prong of Lawson’s strategy, who took over the business from his father, Frank Lawson, in 2018. In the past six, going on seven years, the company has grown revenue 25% and store count 50%, going from four to six locations. It has 50 employees. 

On the single barrel, meanwhile, when Lawson went in that direction, bourbon was trending in the world of spirits and the young entrepreneur was forming relationships with suppliers. The single barrels are offered to stores as a thank you for support. They’re unique because of their flavor profile — often whiskeys are blended from multiple barrels for consistent flavor, but ones that derive from a single barrel will only have the profile of that barrel. 

When Frank heard about his son’s plot to promote the single barrels on social media, another one of Lawson’s strategies, the father had his doubts, thinking cases of bourbon would languish in the back of the shop. “We sold out the entire barrel in 28 minutes,” the younger Lawson says confidently. 

Drinking game

The father-and-son duo may represent different eras of the business, but the two certainly aged in the same barrel. Frank Lawson was not in the industry when he was approached by his father-in-law’s friend, who wanted to get into the liquor business. He agreed to move from South Carolina to run the store and ended up buying him out. Frank Lawson scaled the business to four locations and a dive bar over the years and at the time of the hand off to his son, was handling just under $8 million a year in revenue. He used quirky marketing tactics like parking yellow VW vans in front of the store with smiley faces that said, “Spirits low? We can help.”

Courtesy image

Similarly, Trey Lawson had moved to North Carolina to major in marketing at Appalachian State and stayed put for a few years after graduating. Homesick for Tampa, he sought a way back. Frank was ready to retire and offered to pass the booze baton to his son. In the half decade or so since, Trey united all the stores under a rebrand, added two locations, revamped the dive bar to become a Christmas themed ‘Joy Bar’ and is now bringing in ‘just shy under’ $10 million a year in revenue. Like his dad, he is leaning on marketing techniques but with a 21st century spin. 

“Social media has been massive,” Lawson says. He runs the accounts, on Facebook and Instagram, himself — highly unusual for a $10 million-plus business —and makes a point to respond when people reach out, a personal touch that provides a feeling of community. He says he’ll never outsource the accounts to a third party. 

“How can I use social media to drive people to my stores who would probably never come to North Tampa or live in South Tampa, and why would they drive 30 minutes when they have a store five minutes from them? So that was the key,” he says. “It was really utilizing social media to just be all over the place and let people know what we have in the store, and the reason why they should drive and make the trip.”

But good social media engagement that could lead to sales doesn’t stop there. Lawson explains, “It's consistency. You’ve got to have a story all the time. You need to have posts daily. You need to make it switch up to different content with photos and videos. And it can't be, you know, this cookie cutter stuff that businesses send because it's just not relatable.”

It's also a way for Lawson to get a sense of his customer base. The constant communication allows him to find out more about what flavors the community might want, as he handpicks every single barrel selection that comes to the store. “I think that was something that started to kind of set me apart, is that everyone knew that the Liquor Depot picks weren't just blind barrels that were coming in," he says. "These were truly curated picks for the community."

Thirst quencher 

Moving forward, he is continuing to scale and keep up with the trends. 

Tequila is positioning itself as the Next Big Thing, and Lawson has an educational trip to Mexico planned so he is ready for customer questions. Although he planned to cap the store-count at six locations, he decided he doesn’t want to stop there. He says, “As I continue to grow and add stores, and that's what I really want to focus on, is being that neighborhood store that's going to deliver a great selection, great price point, and just that friendly experience day in and day out.”