As Madison Woman Gets Fired, She Saves Cream Liquor From Bankruptcy

Margaret Eberling hadn’t planned to become the head of her own liquor company, but just before she was let go from Death’s Door Spirits, she took her favorite spirit with her.

Eberling, who had been marketing director for the Midwestern distillery, had always thought that the company’s Kringle Cream was a bit of a departure from the brand’sts regular line-up of gin, vodka and spirits.

“Of its five spirits, Kringle Cream was the outlier,” Eberling says. “The distillery didn’t make the base distillate.”

It was a cream liqueur, made from Wisconsin ingredients, and it was inspired by a Racine, WI danish known as the kringle – an oval-shaped, buttery pastry, covered with icing and filled with different ingredients from nuts to chocolate to fruits. Thanks to Trader Joe’s – and O &H Bakery in Racine, WI – kringle can now be found across the country so more people outside of Wisconsin have a point of reference for Kringle Cream liqueur.

Though Eberling recognized that her company was struggling overall, Kringle Cream remained profitable, and she didn’t think it had reached its full potential. So, in the beginning of 2018, she began working from within the company to transform the product.

She started with the packaging, which was expensive. “The bottles came shrink-wrapped rom France, and as a marketing director, I thought it needed to jump off the shelf a bit more,” she says. “Plus, the brown packaging isn’t very female-oriented, and it was just awkward to hold in your hand.”

Eberling went ahead with a redesign of the packaging and the bottling to make it more appealing, as well as more financially sound, but in late summer, her bosses told her that they couldn’t go ahead with the redesign and the relaunch.

But in August, the company said they couldn’t put the money toward Kringle Cream, and instead, they were focusing on their Death’s Door gin. “I certainly didn’t know that bankruptcy was pending, and I told them ‘We have all the materials on hand, and we have to go to production because without a doubt, October, November and December were our biggest sales months,’” she says. “They told me they didn’t have the cash to go ahead.”

Instead of taking no for an answer, Eberling asked them to sell her the brand. “They were like ‘What?’” she says. “I said ‘Sell me the brand. I’ll put it into production.’”

The company’s head – and its bankruptcy lawyers – gave her the go-ahead, so she purchased the brand, closing on it on Nov. 15, with the company’s bankruptcy moving forward. “I assumed that I would still work with the new owners, having them bottle the prouct and using the same distribution network,” she says.

But the company that purchased Death’s Door – Midwest Custom Bottling- already had a cream liqueur they were selling, Rumchata, so on Dec. 20, Eberling and her newly purchased Kringle Cream were shown the door.

“It was a very interesting Christmas,” she says, adding that she went to all of the previous company’s distribution partners to explain the situation, and she lost some of the larger distributors, including the one in her home state of Wisconsin. 

But within two days, she had secured a new distributor for Wisconsin, and now, she has distribution networks in 12 states, from coast to coast. She also moved production of Kringle Cream from Madison, WI, to Milwaukee, and she’s been focusing marketing her product through tastings.

“That’s how we introduce people to it,” she says. “Anyone who knows what a kringle pastry is, understands it, but it’s super relatable because people relate to (the description of) a buttery pastry with a little nuttiness.”

Eberling also says two of her selling points are that it’s made with all natural flavorings and real Wisconsin dairy. “Also, a lot of people are into it because it’s gluten-free, and I tell people who can’t enjoy a kringle pastry because of gluten intolerance that ‘I’m here to save your day.’”

Eberling says that the growing popularity of kringles, especially at Trader Joe’s where they are the number one selling pastry, is also fueling her spirit’s growth. “But I still do need to explain what Kringle Cream is, the further I get from the epicenter of kringle, which is Racine,” she says. “Some people think it has to do with Christmas, which it’s not.” 

So far, this year’s sales is two and a half times greater than last year’s.  “I am pleased at this success, but we have more to go, absolutely,” says Eberling, who remains Kringle Cream’s only full-time employee.

Within the next year, Eberling will be adding a Kringle Cream and cold brew coffee in a can, as well as different flavors of Kringle Cream.