“But we caught up with everybody and we’re ready to kind of move forward now.” “As with a lot of small startup companies, we were playing right on the edge our first couple of years, and we might have gone over it a little bit,” Hall said at the time. Department of Agriculture lifted sanctions on Hall that prevented him from working in the produce industry because the company failed to pay one of its suppliers for more than $108,000 in apple juice. The 2015 investment also allowed Virtue to catch up on its accounts payable after the company struggled in the first four years of its existence. The move allowed Virtue to “really worry and focus here on the farm on making cider instead of all the other stuff that doesn’t really add value to what we do,” Hall told MiBiz in 2015.
(Fulton Street Beer does business under the Goose Island name.)Īfter the initial deal, Virtue started trucking its finished ciders to the Chicago-based brewery to use its bottling line, which allowed the company to sell its ciders in 12-ounce bottles beginning last year. In the email, Szpigel wrote that AB’s 2015 investment in Virtue “quadrupled its cider production, expanded distribution, and solidified a team of more than 30 passionate, creative cider experts,” according to the report.Īt the time of the initial investment, Hall told MiBiz that the deal would allow Virtue to tap into Goose Island Beer Co.’s packaging lines and distribution channels in Chicago.