Through the pandemic, many local businesses have had to be quick on their feet, adjusting sales and operations, however, one local distillery, not only adapted but also diversified their company to meet the needs of Saskatchewan residents.

Hudson Bay Distillers, a family owned and operated distillery located in Landis SK, has been bringing Saskatchewan homegrown spirits for just under two years.

Cavrin Karchut, along with his mom and dad, Kim and Tim, built the distillery from the ground up on their fourth generation family farm in Landis and they pride themselves in their high-quality whiskey, their one-of-a-kind 100 per cent malt barley vodka and their new cooler line.

Cavrin (left), with his his sister Kelly and her daughter, Octavia, along with his dad and mom, Tim and Kim.

With the first quarter of the year typically being the slowest months for the family distillery, as is for most retail establishments, they were using that time to plan out their spring and summer sales and marketing, including which events to attend and pinpointing locations for tastings among other sales efforts.

When the pandemic hit the province mid-March, the family had to quickly go back to the drawing board, as seemingly overnight, all of their events, tastings and face-to-face plans, were wiped from their schedule.

“Basically in a day-and-a-half, everything was cancelled. So then we were like – what are we going to do – as we 100 per cent rely on retail sales. So then we had to revamp everything and it was a bit of a shuffle,”said Cavrin.

During this time, the family decided to get into the hand sanitizer business, not only to supplement their income during otherwise uncertain times, but also to collaborate with other business owners and use it as a way to give back as well.

“We teamed up with a good friend of mine who owns Flash Electrical and he got in touch with his friends at Trusted Saskatoon. We all teamed up with the hand sanitizer, Flash Fresh, and started a campaign with it as well, as kind of our way to give back”.

The campaign takes a portion of the profits from Flash Fresh Hand Sanitizer and gives it to businesses who have sustained total or partial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are now currently producing both the hand sanitizer and our spirits, which are 100 per cent grain to

Before the pandemic, the Hudson Bay Distillers looked forward to every event and tasting, as it was a great opportunity to get out and meet their customers one-on-one. glass. We have different equipment for each product so we can do both at the same time and we just partition our schedules accordingly,”said Cavrin, noting that the distillery is a much more intricate and detailed process than the hand sanitizer.

Outside of giving back through the campaign, Cavrin said how important it is to shop local and talked about what he has learned through doing business in Saskatchewan.

“You realize how small Saskatchewan is. It doesn’t matter what community you are in, you have some sort of connection with almost everyone and you just need to figure out what it is – and then you do, you find this emotional connection and you just say to yourself, it’s a small world.. I love that feeling”.

Cavrin shared that through all of the ups and downs of COVID, he loves what he does and had some words of advice, and encouragement, for fellow or aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Never underestimate the self-sacrifice that you’re going to have to do to start something. You got to make sure you really love and are passionate about, because it’s going to be your life, every waking second, you’re going to be thinking about it – but – if you love what you do, it’s not work. And as an entrepreneur, you have to learn to be a good problem solver, we had problems and issues we had to figure out before COVID hit, and the more times that you are able to come out on the other side of a problem, your smarter and better equipped for the next hurdle that might happen”.

Despite effectively adapting to the new public health orders, Cavrin said that he can’t wait to be back at events and meeting their clients face-to-face. Until that time, their spirits and hand sanitizer can be found on the shelves of hundreds of retailers across the province.