Founded | 2017
Headquarters | Farmers Branch, Texas
Top Executive | Sarah Shadonix, Founder & CEO
Product Category | Wine and Beverages
What began as a dream to bring transparently made, clean-crafted wine to an otherwise opaque industry has evolved into so much more at Scout & Cellar. While sustainably produced wine with clearly labeled ingredients is still at the forefront of the Scout & Cellar menu, the company is bringing its Clean-Crafted Commitment™ to a range of new products designed to make life even more delicious for its growing customer base.
Rooted in Transparency
Just steps away from the Scout & Cellar Tasting Room, Founder and CEO Sarah Shadonix shared the 15-second bridge from the last chapter of her company’s story to the latest.
“We were a wine company doing what we were doing and doing it really well,” she explained. “And now we are a wine company that also delivers beverages and products for your kitchen, and we do it faster and better and with more deliciousness than ever before.”
Launching in 2017, Scout & Cellar disrupted both the wine and direct selling industries by producing a new kind of wine and giving entrepreneurs a new way to share it. Traditionally, wine makers don’t disclose their ingredients, which means that anything from grocery store bottles to high-dollar vintages can legally contain pesticides, chemical additives and added sugar. Scout & Cellar also looked to challenge conventional wisdom that held that wine was too complicated to sell online.
Sarah and her team challenged both notions by developing sustainably crafted, transparently labeled and independently tested wine, along with an effective way for direct sellers to share it.
From launch until early 2020, Scout & Cellar was on a strong and steady path, growing the field, releasing new and exciting wines, nurturing relationships with vineyards and growers and dreaming about the possibilities for its Clean-Crafted Commitment. The pandemic and the explosive demand for wine that it generated forced Sarah’s team into a season that was anything but steady.
“We were on a path to do something at a different pace and in a different way,” she shared. “COVID came and drove us in different directions in terms of our focus. There was just such a meaningful demand for our product that we had to invest all our energy and try to survive that growth and be there for people and for our grower partners, for our community, for our customers. It’s nice to get back to growing at the right pace and in the right way now.”
These days, with the chaos of pandemic demand behind them, Sarah and her team are dreaming again. Scout & Cellar’s most important value proposition is its Clean-Crafted Commitment which has expanded from wine and now inspires coffee and non-alcoholic beverages with even more food and beverages to come. This proprietary standard is one of the most rigorous wine-growing standards in the industry but was designed by the company to extend beyond the vineyard. Its three key focuses are sustainable growth in healthy soil; no artificial processing aids or added sugars; and independent lab testing.
“We’re focused on delivering deliciousness,” Sarah shared. “We do that through our Clean-Crafted Commitment. We’re delivering a product that you already love, but that’s purer than you expect, because the food system that delivers it to you otherwise is broken. We’re moving into products that are part of our customer’s life already. We jumped into coffee first last year, and that’s gone great for us. Wine drinkers and coffee drinkers share a lot of similarities. You connect over a glass of wine; you connect over a cup of coffee. There’s interest in both beverages.”
Currently, Scout & Cellar is home to over 25 brands of wine and its own coffee brand, Scouting Grounds Roasting Company, with more brands of food and beverages to come.
Focused on Flavor and Fun
In the coming months, Scout & Cellar will be offering olive oil and vinegar, produced with the same high standards, as new ways for consultants to connect with customers around products they already love. With over 11,000 consultants and counting, the company offers a different kind of direct sales opportunity.
“We don’t walk and talk like a traditional direct selling company, and that’s on purpose,” shared Sarah. “And we don’t walk and talk like a traditional direct-to-consumer company, nor do we walk and talk like a traditional affiliate marketing company. We play in all those spaces, so the opportunity that we create allows you to be whoever you are in this space and represent products that you love. Our opportunity is going to be different in a year than it is today because we’re always innovating and creating more ways to earn more; develop more community; and be a part of something that’s bigger than yourself. No other direct selling company has a big presence like we do in retail and is on Amazon and has a tasting room and has all these different channels. And in all those channels, we’re empowering our consultants to earn along in the journey.”
Scout & Cellar Chief Communications Officer Jennifer Knott believes that the company’s approach to wine attracts fun, energized consultants that bring fresh energy to the industry.
“We have made it one of our goals to make wine really approachable and accessible to people that maybe don’t know a lot, but they want to know more,” she explained. “They want to lean in. They want to experience that, but it can be intimidating. The way we have approached our marketing and the way we speak about our wine, our tasting notes, make it accessible to people beyond the wine connoisseur, the wine collector. Our brand is fun and fresh, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Our consultants are very, very passionate about our product and how it brings people together. They have a lot of fun. There’s a lot of energy and entrepreneurship in our community. We have a lot of first-time direct sellers in our field, so they come at this industry and this business opportunity with really fresh perspective.”
The Scout & Cellar team meets this fresh field perspective with creativity of its own, offering new ways to delight both customers and consultants. In early 2024, the company announced its Scout Wild Ambassador Program, which allows consultants to share the Scout Wild brand of wines with their favorite restaurants and businesses, earning referral bonuses in the process.
“This is a whole ecosystem that is unique in the wine industry that we’re excited to empower our consultants to be a part of,” Sarah shared. “In the process, they’re talking about the Clean-Crafted Commitment. They may pick up a few customers, possibly a Wine Club member. It’s a way to involve our consultants to be a part of that channel.”
Cultivating What’s Next
With the intensity of the last few years behind her, Sarah is most excited about what lies ahead for Scout & Cellar—a world of new possibilities for the company’s Clean-Crafted Commitment that make life more delicious. The latest possibility that’s come to life is a non-alcoholic wine released in January, but that’s only the start of what’s to come. In the coming months, Scout & Cellar will offer additional products from brands that are part of its Clean-Crafted wine lifestyle in a marketplace called Clean-Crafted Selections, giving consultants a new opportunity to share fresh brand stories.
As these new products and brands expand Scout & Cellar’s brand visibility in big, new ways, Sarah and her team have rallied behind an equally big goal and are ready for what’s next.
“We’re on a mission to be a household named by 2030,” Sarah explained. “I say that to people all the time, and they’re kind of like, ‘why?’ Because when we do that, we will have changed so many people’s lives in such a positive way. Creating opportunity, whether it’s in a new employee or an employee that’s been there for six years, or a new consultant or a new customer—that is just the best part.”
From the April 2024 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
