Beyond the Bottle with the CEO of B. Stuyvesant Champagne

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1:26The Cincinnati insurance companies. Let them make your bad day better. Find an agent at c-i-n-f-i-n dot com. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. In the most recent issue of Bloomberg Pursuits, Kate Crater, who's the Pursuits food editor, She writes about how even though alcohol use is declining, consumers still want that buzz. She writes about how GLP-1s or legalized recreational marijuana have changed people's appetite for drinking it as much as they used to. Here's what she writes. Perhaps this is what best encapsulates where we're headed.

2:10Alcohol is still at the table, but it no longer has all the seats. Now it's got to share with no and low alcohol neighbors and other accepted vices such as THC gummies. All right. There's a lot going on. We know that. But I have to say, even at certain events, family events, or you even go out, people are ordering, I feel like, a glass of champagne more and more. Curious to see what Marvina S. Robinson is seeing. She's founder and CEO of B. Stuyvesant Champagne, back here once again in our Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. We celebrated just ahead of New Year's with you, and now we're back here on Valentine's Day, where I do feel like a lot of champagne comes out.

2:44You were optimistic, I think, when we talked with you ahead of the new year. but you also talked about tariffs affecting your business. Give us an update. How did January play out for you guys, or the end of the new year and then into this year? I think January is always a slow season for all industries of business. For us, it was actually the uptick beginning for February and March, as far as people booked in tastings, because we do have a champagne tasting room, different activations they want to have on-site and off-site. That was the uptick for us. As far as daily sales, yes, it was actually down, but it's January, So that's normally expected for kind of taking a break.

3:21Right. And they have this thing. I don't know if you ever heard it called dry January. I know nothing about it, but it's there. It's a thing. It's a big thing. You know, a lot of our customers say, hey, it's dry January. I'm just stocking up for February. So the last week of January, I would say that we began to get orders in and some notes say dry January is over. I'm over. I'm back. You know, so I'm glad that, you know, consumers, you know, return. But there are so many different, like you said, you have to share the industry with a lot of a lot of different items on the market. One thing that also happened in January was you were featured in a Bloomberg News story about the president's tariffs.

3:58Yes. And the Supreme Court and a lawsuit that you joined. Back in November, you filed a lawsuit to recoup$78 ,000 that you spent on tariffs in 2025. The effect of that was pretty big for you because you're a small business. You have bootstrapped it. You don't have outside investors, but you had fewer bottles from France that came to the U.S. as a result. And you also hired fewer people, and you raised prices. Yes, I did all of that. So we reduced the production of half bottles of 375, the half bottles. We reduced production, and we did get feedback from customers that that's what they normally gift with.

4:35375 milliliters? Yeah, the half bottles of champagne. So we did get some feedback from that. most of our customers understood the price increase, right? We didn't dramatically increase the price, but it did. It comes with the economy. And for myself with the tariffs, yeah, I'm still waiting on that decision. It's been changed so many times. So I'm, I'm waiting to see what the outcome is going to be with the Supreme Court. So not like you're factoring anything in, like the assumption that it's going to be overturned. You're just wait, waiting. Yeah. I'm not factoring anything. I did actually slow down our next shipment because I want to see if it goes into effect, if I can avoid a tariff for 2026, I would love to.

5:11So based on our current inventory levels, we kind of moved it back a little bit because we have a little bit of time before, you know, to get the next one in, hopefully without tariffs. You know, I'm curious what you think as a business owner who has experienced these tariffs, when you hear the president say, we're bringing in so much money from tariffs, other countries are paying these tariffs. We've brought in hundreds of billions of dollars. What goes through your head when he when he says those things? The clean version is like, it's the business owners that are affected. And beyond that comes the consumer.

5:46And it's hard, right? As a person who's a small business owner, and I've talked with other small business owners, it affects what you do and how your business grows. And it's not consistency because from the administration, there can be a threat. Like the past, there was a threat over a month ago about champagne. If you don't join one of his boards, the champagne tower was going to go up. It's not consistent. And it's always, you know, a flag and it's not fair to consumers. It's not fair to business owners, because how can we actually plan? You're planning in a season of uncertainty and it doesn't operate well like that.

6:18Morvina, I want to be fair. Like, is this an administration that is listening to small business? And in general, do administrations, whatever political side they may be, How much of an audience does small business usually get from federal government, from White Houses? I have not seen a lot of support or even thought of small businesses with this current administration. I think everything, especially with the tariffs, was blanket tariffs, not incorporating how smaller operations smaller businesses own. You know, you have mom and pop shots that really operate in this manner and just should put these blanket corporate taxes.

6:55we can't afford to send an airplane over to get stuff over before tariffs go into effect, which a lot of the corporations have that advantage. We couldn't afford to do that. So it hurts, right? And for myself, I look at the Small Business Administration. I look at some of our local supporters. And I like to hear what other people are discussing. And it's the same feedback. And it really hurts because small businesses are important for this country. But past administrations? I did see more support from past administrations. To be fair. Yes. to give a little perspective. Did you just open champagne?

7:27Well, I did because you guys have an ethos. We sip it and let's learn about it. That's right. That's it. Yes, I love it. Let's go there. There is a bottle that's open. Thank you. They were so afraid that I was going to hit a camera so they opened it on me. Carol, the show's not over. Yeah. So there's still time. Tell us about this one and I'm going to share it around. Okay. This is our Blanc des Blanc. It's 100 % Chardonnay grape. It pairs well with seafood. It's actually one of my favorites. I love to have it with mussels, oysters, caviar, big fish. So it's actually one of our favorites. It's actually one of our top sellers.

7:58Thank you very much. It sounds like it goes with a lot of food. And like, I do think about that. I'm not always good. I'm a real red wine and I'll drink red wine with everything, but there is something about really matching something, including a champagne. Yeah. Food pairings are very important with wines, right? It totally enhances the food and actually also enhances the wine. Can I just say, look at that right at the top. Go ahead. Go ahead. And it actually, you know, it tempts your palate, right? So I always tell people, try a wine on its own, try it with a piece of food, and then try it together, and you'll see how it totally enhances one another.

8:30When we think about the business, I mentioned you're bootstrapped, and that's kind of rare these days from consumer packaged goods startups. I thought you were going to say, happy Valentine's Day. Oh, yes, happy Valentine's Day. Cheers. Thank you for joining us. Yes. When you think about businesses today, so many take on outside funding, even consumer packaged goods companies. This is not just for tech companies. How do you bootstrap a company like this in this environment? So when I first launched B. Stuyvesant in 2020, I did not know exactly what I was doing as far as way the business going.

8:59That's a tough time to do it. Tough time, right? Originally, B. Stuyvesant was supposed to be a house brand for a champagne bar I was going to open. And what happens is with COVID, we had our inventory, but it wasn't the best environment to really open up anything. So I'd actually decided, a couple of retailers had asked me about the champagne. I was like, oh, you just have to wait. But it ended up going on the shelves of some stores. We actually launched at Happy Cork in Brooklyn, who still carries our products six years later. We just turned six actually yesterday. Happy birthday. Thank you.

9:30And the brand just really took off on its own. So I really just decided that this is the business. And for myself, I wanted to prove proof of concept. Right. I just don't want to take on investors or people's money and not know what it's going to do. so I did five full years and we've done it's been let me tell you I've had a lot of like I can only imagine roller coasters but I'm really happy to see where we've landed celebrating six years growing from operating out of my apartment to going to our first retail stop and now we're actually in a full service tasting spot in the Brooklyn Navy Yard I've got to just tell you people are saying what we got no pop so I'm like how about that I'm gonna do a little sound effect Real quickly before we end up, so there's a rosé, there's a reserve.

10:12What's the difference from the Blanc de Blancs? Blanc de Blanc, 100 % chardonnay grape. Reserve is actually 80 % pinot noir, 20 % mounier grape. No chardonnay grape, full body. Naturally, you have rosé. Rosé all day is actually 58 % pinot noir, 22 % mounier, and a 20 % chardonnay grape. So, first of all, check, check, and check. They all sound good. When you think about 2026, we're in this moment where we came into it with some, you know, I think it's some crazy headlines in terms of policy and things coming out geopolitically. What's the biggest thing that you worry about in terms of running your business here?

10:54And we talk about the Fed a lot. So I'm just curious from your vantage point. I worry about consumers. I worry about retailers thinking outside the box and not just always heading over to the traditional big houses. because there's some amazing grower champagne out there. And I always see that they always tend to highlight the big brands. But us growers do have a space at the table, and I would love for them to expand more out of the typical big house box. Consumer shopping? Consumers and actually retailers not going towards more small growers' brands. I'm getting messages from bureaus all over about people who want champagne right now and other shows that are happening that don't have champagne on their show.

11:34are you for sale in DC at this point? Yes, we are actually for sale in DC. Okay, so take note, Amy Morris. And the Thompson Hotel is actually our exclusive hotel that actually carries B. Stuyvesant Champagne. All right, there it is. Great stuff. Listen, again, thank you so much. We were celebrating a lot of holidays with you lately, so I'm trying to think what's next, but we'll figure it out. Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you. And a great read also on certainly small business. Marvina S. Robinson, she's founder and CEO of B. Stuyvesant Champagne joining us right here in studio. They told us to expect change.

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