By Emma Dooling – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
After a year of explosive growth for its Surfside brand, Stateside Vodka is searching for a new office space and distillery to support its expanding operations.
The Philadelphia distiller's hunt for new space comes after scrapping its plans to open an "all encompassing" headquarters housing its manufacturing, distribution and corporate operations at 13000 McNulty Road in Northeast Philadelphia, co-founder Matt Quigley told the Business Journal. Stateside, known for its namesake vodka and ready-to-drink canned cocktails, is still set to move into that facility later this month, but it will now only serve as a distribution center.
The company's goal now is to find office and manufacturing space in Northeast Philadelphia nearby, CEO and co-founder Clement Pappas said, but he's not ruling out other locations around the city. Stateside is looking for up to 100,000 square feet of space for the distillery. It did not disclose a target size for the office space.
Stateside is using a temporary 10,000-square-foot office building in Trevose while it searches for a permanent space.
The Business Journal reported in April on Stateside's plans to move into the 40,000-square-foot McNulty Road facility, a move that will allow it to increase its operations 900%. That would have included about 12,000 square feet of office space and a distillery producing about 1 million cases annually.
It would have marked a departure from Stateside's original headquarters at 1700 N. Hancock St. in the Olde Kensington neighborhood. Pappas previously told the Business Journal that the company plans to maintain ownership of that property and keep the on-site tasting room in operation.
Stateside is now changing its approach following the rapid growth of its wildly popular Surfside brand of iced tea and vodka ready-to-drink cocktails. Last year, Stateside more than tripled its production of Surfside to 4.925 million cases and expanded its distribution to all 50 states, necessitating more distribution space.
With that expansion, Stateside grew its employee base, hiring 51 people since Sept. 1 alone, 21 of whom are based in Philadelphia. It is currently looking to fill another 20 positions, five of whom will be in Philadelphia. The company has a around 200 employees, with 80 in Philadelphia.
That growth forced a change in plans for Stateside's Northeast Philadelphia facility, where housing every local employee would have been difficult, according to Pappas.
“Between that and the space we need for distribution and everything, it just wasn't going to work,” Pappas said.
The change in its real estate strategy comes as as the brand continues seeing huge growth.
Pappas and Quigley founded Stateside in 2013 with their brothers Zach Pappas and Bryan Quigley. In 2022, they launched the Surfside brand, offering a four-pack of the traditional iced tea and vodka, producing 200,000 cases. In 2023, Stateside upped its production volume of Surfside to 1.3 million cases. The company further grew the brand in 2024 by more than tripling its production to 4.925 million cases, Pappas said.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/3c88001
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