In addition to being the parent company of Mike’s Hard Lemonade Co., Mark Anthony Group Inc., based in Vancouver, is a beer and wine distributor in Canada. The company distributes its own brands and products such as Corona, which founder Anthony von Mandl calls “one of the greatest brands in the world,” in Western Canada.

“One of the things that has made us very sensitive to distributors and their needs is that we also have a distribution business,” von Mandl says. “That has been a great source of learning and it’s also been a great opportunity to experiment and see what might work and what doesn’t work.”

In addition, von Mandl also owns the Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in British Columbia. “That’s sort of a passion of mine,” he says. “Everything I do involves beverages, alcohol beverages. I’m not involved in real estate or fashion or stocks or bonds ... this is what I do and the work we do.

“One of the things you learn in wines is that, in the end, it’s about what goes in the bottle,” he adds. “It’s that philosophy and obsession with taste, quality and consistency that is one of the reasons we have been successful with Mike’s Hard Lemonade.”