A view from the front lines
Newport, VT – March 23, 2020: Eden Specialty Ciders is taking action as COVID-19 dramatically impacts all of our businesses and our lives. We are in a particularly challenging position as the focus of our distribution has been independent restaurants and bars, exactly the sector that is being worst hit economically. In a few days we saw 6 weeks of planned orders dry up to almost nothing, and we know what that means for them. We are also fierce in our mission: 95% of the apples that we use in our cider are grown here in Vermont, by small orchards who depend on us to support their livelihood.
Day in and day out 15.1 million people in this country work to make sure others can leave their worries behind for an hour, and join together with friends or family over a meal or drinks. They ensure you can get that perfect comfort meal when you’re too tired to cook, are a sympathetic ear when you just need to vent, or just help create atmosphere to give you a respite from everything else going on in the world. They normally do this for upwards of 50 hours a week with no health insurance, no 401(k), and no safety net to fall back on. A possible 8 week shut down has left many with an uncertain future, and no idea where their next paycheck will come from, especially as not everyone will qualify for unemployment.
We here at Eden know it is these people who have been integral to our own growth, and we want to give back. From now until the end of May we will be donating 5% of any distributor sales to the United States Bartenders Guild, who help restaurant employees with emergency funding during these tough times. We hope this small action will help those in all markets affected.
In the meantime, we are doing what we must to get through this. As of Friday we have put ⅔ of our staff on temporary layoff, and have delayed the packaging of new ciders except those we can pre-sell through ecommerce. E-commerce is our best immediate option, and we are encouraging consumers to toast their virtual happy hours with special offers on great ciders at our website now through May 1st, including 15% off on 12 or more bottles, free shipping within the state of Vermont, and online ordering with back door pickup at our facility in Newport, all at edenciders.com. The more we sell, the sooner we can pay our remaining bills for the 2020 apple harvest to our Vermont growers that depend on us, and get our people back to work.
To order cider: www.edenciders.com/store
To join us in donating to USBG https://www.usbgfoundation.org/covid-19-response
ABOUT EDEN SPECIALTY CIDERS
Eden Specialty Ciders was founded in 2007 in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom region. It is a boutique producer of dry harvest-driven ciders, ice ciders and aperitif ciders made from heirloom and tannic apple varieties using traditional winemaking techniques. Eden is committed to supporting small, sustainable apple growers, and has its own five-acre orchard where they grow over 50 heritage apple varieties in a biodynamic management system.
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