Me, I always preferred David Lee Roth as my Van Halen singer of choice, but Sammy Hagar’s doing just fine. BusinessWeek reports (yes, freakin’ BusinessWeek) reports on Sammy’s not so small business.
As the founder and front man of the 200-employee, Novato (Calif.)-based Cabo Wabo Enterprises, with about $60 million in revenue, Hagar is behind a top-selling line of premium tequilas, as well as a growing chain of tequila bars, aptly named the Cabo Wabo Cantina.
What began as a hobby is now a serious business. According to Stephen Kauffman, Cabo Wabo’s president and an industry veteran, for the past several years the company has seen sales growth of 25% annually. And he says Cabo Wabo is tied for the No. 2 superpremium tequila spot with Don Julio, behind Patrón in the U.S.
I’ll give Sammy credit, but when it comes to being a singing one-man escapist-lifestyle marketing machine, he’s got nothing on Jimmy Buffett.
Maybe he can drive his brand, but he still can’t drive 55… 😉
Man, say what you will (and I suppose this comes from a little jealously of this cats luck) but if it wasn’t for those two Dutch boys, there would have been ZERO interest in that bar and certainly no one would be buying this tequila. Boy did he back into the brinks truck! (at an embarrassing 55 mph)