The brand new CEO of Tennessee spirits maker Firm Distilling, Cassie Halley, on creating areas for the neighborhood to get pleasure from whiskey and the corporate’s anti-gatekeeping strategy.
Firm Distilling was established in 2021 by Jeff Arnett, the previous grasp distiller of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, alongside Kris Tatum, former president of the Tennessee Distillers Guild.
Becoming a member of the Tennessee firm final yr to go up advertising and retail, Cassie Halley stepped into the CEO position final month.
“Earlier than I used to be in advertising and promoting, I spent the final seven years in hospitality,” Halley tells me over Zoom. She joined Firm Distilling from one other Tennessee enterprise, Little Arrow Out of doors Resort, the place she was the chief advertising officer and chief working officer.
Firm Distilling’s portfolio features a straight Bourbon completed in maple wooden, a straight rye whiskey completed in cherry wooden, and a straight Tennessee whiskey completed in apple wooden. Along with whiskey, Firm Distilling additionally makes Ghost Rail Gin and the Ace Gape line of flavoured spirits.
Halley’s hospitality expertise enhances Firm Distilling, which boasts three Tennessee venues – “every distinctive in their very own method”, she says.
Firm Distilling launched its first Tennessee website in Townsend in 2022 and opened its second in Thompson’s Station the identical yr, earlier than including a facility in Lynchburg in 2025. Every website operates a distillery and tasting room.
“I like how they’ve every turn out to be gathering locations, not simply shops,” she says. “From our beer gardens to our tasting experiences, we’re targeted on creating areas the place individuals wish to spend time, study our craft and join with one another.”
There are plans to renovate the Thompson’s Station website to make it greater, Halley says, with the placement additionally boasting a bar with a retail store and tasting space.
The Lynchburg location opened in Might final yr and is the one bar and distillery in Moore County. It’s famously recognized for being a dry county (distillery excursions/tastings are allowed), Halley explains, including they’re solely in a position to serve alcohol there due to their very own manufacturing licence.
“We will serve cocktails by the glass and we’re proper in Jack Daniel’s yard. It’s a big house with a manufacturing facility. We now have an enormous bar, we have now one other retail house and we’re opening primarily a fourth room that’ll seat over 100 individuals to do large excursions and occasions there. It’s a complete new house for the neighborhood.”
Distribution plans
By way of her ambitions for the corporate, Halley hopes to open up new markets and develop in its present ones. So far, the enterprise distributes to 9 states: Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado.
“My aim is ideally for everybody within the nation to know Firm Distilling, however we’re not in all the states but,” she says. “We’re simply in 9 proper now however we’re opening just a few extra this yr.”
From February, the corporate will enter Louisiana, with markets like Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky additionally doubtlessly on the horizon.
“One in every of our distribution objectives is to get into all of the states that contact Tennessee, that are rather a lot, and I feel we’re nearly there. Kentucky is an enormous one as a result of they’re large into Bourbon. What’s vital to me is you’ll be able to open actually quick in all of the states, however that doesn’t imply individuals will know who you might be and wish to take your bottle off the shelf. I feel certainly one of my objectives is basically ensuring individuals know who we’re, in order that they frequently hold selecting to drag us off the shelf over another person.”
Halley hopes to maintain experiences on the forefront of the enterprise and unfold the corporate’s message of ‘spirits value sharing’ via product improvement, buyer expertise and neighborhood engagement.
Halley additionally hasn’t dominated out opening extra distilleries. “We’ve talked about it. I feel it’s one thing that our staff is keen on. They achieve this nicely; individuals love what we have now to supply. I feel they love our areas. And you understand, East Tennessee is rising like loopy, so there is likely to be a possibility the place we open one other bar in Knoxville or the encompassing areas. I feel all the pieces’s form of on the desk proper now.”
However for now, Halley says the main target is on distribution and sustaining the enterprise’s robust retail gross sales.
It’s been a tricky time for the whiskey business with many producers pulling again on their manufacturing within the face of decrease ranges of demand, after the growth that occurred through the pandemic. Regardless of the quite a few challenges going through the business and being a comparatively new enterprise, Firm Distilling has continued to develop.
“Fortunately, knock on wooden, our distilleries haven’t taken successful,” she displays. “I imply our numbers from 2025 had been both at or above the place they had been for 2024. That’s actually good. After which you understand opening in new markets inside our distribution, I feel some states did higher than others, however we did all proper there too.”
Whereas neighbouring Jack Daniel’s stays one of many biggest-selling whiskey manufacturers in the marketplace, the business in Tennessee is rising. There are round 40-plus distilleries who’re members of the Tennessee Distillers Guild, and knowledge from the American Craft Spirits Affiliation signifies there have been 58 craft distilleries within the state as of August 2025.
Like Kentucky, Tennessee additionally has its personal whiskey path, which the Guild launched in 2017. So far, the path options 25 distilleries, together with all three of Firm Distilling’s websites alongside the likes of Cascade Hole Distilling Co, Leiper’s Fork and Nelson’s Inexperienced Brier.
“We work actually intently with the Tennessee Whiskey Path,” Halley explains, including the distilleries on the path help one another via totally different experiences.
Firm Distilling can even be part of the Path’s new Cork to Fork initiative, which brings collectively distilleries and native eateries to create spirit-infused, chef-crafted dishes.
The soon-to-be-launched scheme will see distilleries present their liquid to Tennessee eating places who will provide spirits-paired entrées and whiskey-infused desserts, inviting locals to expertise the perfect of the state’s spirits via inventive native delicacies.
New Bourbon within the works
Going ahead, Halley notes that the corporate’s major focus shall be on whiskey. Arnett is engaged on the discharge of a brand new four-grain Bourbon, Halley says, including that the previous Jack Daniel’s distiller is “at all times experimenting”. There are no less than three totally different merchandise within the pipeline for 2026, she notes.
Halley describes working with Arnett as an “unimaginable alternative”. “He’s a grasp of his craft – actually. As CEO, my job isn’t to make the Bourbon or gin; it’s to construct the operational programs and strategic path that permit him and our complete staff to excel at what they do finest. We complement one another nicely: he brings unparalleled distilling experience, and I convey organisational and strategic capabilities.”
Relating to the corporate’s ethos, she says: “We’re explicitly anti-hoarding, anti-gatekeeping. Whereas elements of the Bourbon business have fun allocation and shortage, we have fun abundance and accessibility.
“Our Bourbon is supposed to be opened and loved, not locked away. That positioning may appear delicate, nevertheless it essentially adjustments how we strategy all the pieces from product to advertising to buyer expertise.”
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