Cocktail machine maker expands headquarters to Chicago’s Fulton Market

Cocktail machine maker Bartesian is expanding its headquarters to Chicago’s Fulton Market, after explosive sales growth during the pandemic.

Bartesian aims to hire more talent at its 10,000-square-foot space at 452 North Sangamon Street, which is five times the size of its current River North office, Crain’s reported. A three-year-old company of 14 employees, Bartesian saw triple-digit revenue growth in 2021 and is on track to reach $100 million in annual revenue.

“We’re trying to attract and recruit talent,” Bartesian’s founder and CEO Ryan Close said. “Who doesn’t want to be around here?”

Fulton Market, a bright spot in Chicago’s pandemic-battered office market, attracted new tenants to its new and renovated Class A buildings during the pandemic. Chicago’s upscale convenience store chain Foxtrot leased a 30,000-square-foot lease last year at 167 North Green, where WeWork software company CCC Intelligent Solutions are tenants. McDonald’s supplier Havi Group and food-packaging startup Hazel Technologies also joined the list of companies that inked leases in Fulton Market in 2021.

While Bartesian plans to grow its team by more than three-fold to 30 employees in the next two years, the firm faces a challenge of labor shortages in the market and supply chain issues. Close said recruiting the right talent has been an uphill battle and certain products were slower to roll out due to supply chain disruptions.

The pandemic gave a boost to the business at Bartesian, which created a machine that users can pop in cocktail pods and load in liquor of their choice. In addition to selling $370 cocktail machines, the firm also generates profit from licensing deals, selling cocktail capsules and ancillary items like pod holders.

In “2020 and 2021, the name of the game was just trying to keep up with the appliance demand,” Close said. “January and the first weeks of February have been blazing hot.”

[Crain’s] – Connie Kim