Retail / news
Corrigans take Havadrink Enterprises into travel retail with DeGroff spirits portfolio
Drinks industry veteran Steve Corrigan and his wife Joanne are re-establishing their New York business Havadrink Enterprises as a travel retail venture, backed by a partnership with cocktail figure Dale DeGroff and Oregon-based Hood River Distillers.
Havadrink Enterprises was founded by the couple in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, when bars and restaurants were closed to the public. The business delivered professionally made premium cocktails, presented in packaged format, directly to customers' homes at a time when social gathering was restricted.
The company has now been rebuilt as a multi-discipline operation aimed at the travel retail channel, drawing on what the pair describe as decades of experience across international beverage, hospitality and education.
It has partnered with Dale DeGroff, the bartender widely known as 'King Cocktail', and with Oregon-based Hood River Distillers to bring DeGroff's range of bitter spirits, amaro and aperitivo into travel retail.
Steve Corrigan is a long-serving drinks executive whose career includes time at World Brands Duty Free — now Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail — and at William Grant & Sons.
The Corrigans plan to attend the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, running from 27 September to 1 October, where they will meet prospective trade partners for the travel retail business.