- November 23, 2024
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Jimmy Day, owner of Flagler Spirits, credits Enterprise Flagler for its growth in the second year.
Palm Coast liquor-maker Jimmy Day can feel big things happening.
Two years ago, he opened Flagler Spirits in a rented, un-air-conditioned warehouse in Hargrove Grade, where, in 600 square feet of workspace, he has produced rum and whiskey, 40 gallons at a time.
But come the beginning of April, Day will move a half-mile down the road, into a 1,000-square-foot unit at 15 Hargrove Lane. He’ll own the new space. It’ll have plumbing and more “go-go” electricity power. It’ll be nicer.
But most importantly, it will allow for him to triple production — and that is essential, considering, as of March 20, Flagler Spirits has already surpassed its bottle and bulk sales from 2011.
“We have no choice,” Day said. “We’ve got to get big.”
Higher ceilings in the new space will also let him store barrels onsite for aging. Already, he has begun aging whiskey. And after the drums are rotated, he can start aging rum in old whiskey barrels, which will add dark rum to his product line (in addition to the clear already offered).
By this time next year, Day plans to have 100 barrels stacked and aging at Flagler Spirits.
“That’s our future,” he added. “We’re ramping up on all fronts.”
Although claiming to be only “cautiously optimistic” of the future, Day can’t help but show his enthusiasm. Within five years, he said, he’s already considering building a stand-alone facility, possibly as large as 10,000 square feet.
“We can probably increase sales if we can make it faster,” he said. “But we can’t sacrifice quality for quantity. We have to continue to make exactly the same thing every time, and that’s difficult on a good day.”
To combat a quality drop, Day won’t increase the size of his stills; he’ll just add more of them. And with updated hardware (the new space will have valves for plumbing, instead of everything having to moved by hand), “life is going to be so much easier.”
“Consistency through the growth is the main thing right now,” Day added. “We can’t go from being the backyard hamburger to the Burger King hamburger and still make fun of the McDonalds’ hamburger.”
Looking forward, Day credits part of his expansion to former Enterprise Flagler Director Greg Rawls, who Day feels got a raw deal from residents and the county. Rawls connected him to people Day “didn’t even know existed” when his company launched in 2010, he said. When the two met, Day was a layman. Rawls helped turn him into a businessman.
“I’m not the most diplomatic person when I’m filled with righteous indignation,” Day said. And in 2010, there was a lot of indignation. Liquor distilleries were not common business in Flagler and so there was an undertone of fear associated with his business — a fear Day says Rawls helped extinguish.
“Now, the boogeyman’s kind of gone,” Day said. “Jimmy hasn’t caught anything on fire. There hasn’t been any explosions … (Officials) know what we’re up to.”
All thanks, in part, to Enterprise Flagler. “I don’t think people realize how many other small businesses they did help,” he added.
Going into 2012, Day’s goal was to double last year’s sales. Right now, that seems likely — so does continued growth, according to Day.
“We haven’t done this in a robust economy,” he said. “We don’t know any better. And the fact that we’re growing by leaps and bounds, it can only get better when the economy picks up.”
