How a distillery pivoted to hand sanitizer during COVID-19

Executive overview

When California shut down restaurants and tasting rooms over a single weekend in early 2020, Surf City Stillworks lost its entire revenue stream. The founding team had been mid-expansion — scaling from 1,300 to 25,000 square feet — and had just hired a new director of sales.

Within a week they had pivoted to producing hand sanitizer, sourced ingredients by tanker load, and outsold all of 2019 in their first month.

A clear founding purpose and a diverse, trusted team made an impossible-seeming pivot possible in days.

From spirits to sanitizer

• Revenue disappeared over a single weekend when California ordered tasting rooms closed
• Had to lay off staff, freeze construction, and pause bills while assessing options
• Investors who were less impacted by COVID stepped in with emergency funds
• Initial sanitizer inquiries — 15 in one day from hospitals and first responders — triggered the decision
• Pivoted to production within one week of deciding; first five-gallon buckets sold shortly after
• Sold more in the first month than all of 2019 combined

Why the pivot worked

• Distilling and sanitizer production share core equipment and chemistry (ethyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, glycerin)
• Technical expertise transferred directly; the gap was sourcing ingredients at volume
• Church contacts provided glycerin and hydrogen peroxide; investor network located ethyl alcohol by the tanker
• The new director of sales handled 600+ emails in a single week — a hire they nearly rescinded
• Partner Chris (dynamic, outward-facing) handled what the founders were not suited for; Elena managed systems and follow-through

Leading as yourself

• Elena joined the Coaching for Leaders Academy expecting to learn how to become a charismatic, high-energy leader
• Personality assessments showed she was the opposite of that archetype — and that it was fine
• Realising she could lead as a supportive, diligent, fair-minded person removed a significant self-imposed burden
• Supportive leadership means building systems, following through, and seeing multiple sides of conflict — not staying in the background
• Research supports equally effective leadership across introverted/extroverted and task/people preferences

Building a team with complementary strengths

• Deliberately hired people whose strengths differed from the founders' own
• Partner Chris brought energy and presence; Elena brought structure and diligence; Josh drove vision and expansion planning
• Diversity of strengths was the direct enabler of the rapid COVID response
• Delegation is not a concession — it is the mechanism by which a well-rounded team functions
• Founders who hire in their own image miss the range needed to respond when conditions change

On failure and pivoting

• Past business failures built the skill set that enabled a one-week pivot
• Success is hard work and opportunity aligning — not the absence of failure
• Failing adds tools; the number of prior failures correlates with pivot speed
• Asking for help, including from investors and personal networks, is not weakness — it is the first step