Pancho Datos Tequila to shutter business
“We haven’t been able to grow the brand to the level that we needed to,” said the owner of premium Tequila Pancho Datos, which will cease operations after six-and-a-half years.
Pancho Datos is produced at a distillery (NOM 1614) in El Arenal, Jalisco, and was created in partnership with Luis Carlos Grijalva in Mexico. The brand hit the UK market in 2019.
Addressing the decision on LinkedIn, brand owner and managing director, Stuart Wischhusen, said: “It is with great sadness to announce that after six-and-a-half-years, Tequila Pancho Datos will soon be coming to an end.
“It has been a long, hard-fought road for us but unfortunately we haven’t been able to grow the brand to the level that we needed to.
“There have been some incredible highlights along the way. Our reposado being announced as Gold Outstanding at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) awards, being listed at Wimbledon, working with The Oval and Lords, being at the Chelsea Flower Show and being on Sunday Brunch twice, are just some of the amazing moments we have experienced.
“Thank you Luis for sharing your dream and your family’s story with us.”
The brand’s range consists of two Tequilas: Plata, which is unaged with herbal, slightly sweet and peppery notes – and Reposado, which has been aged for 10 months in ex-Bourbon white oak casks.
The Plata has an SRP of £56.95 (US$71) and the Reposado for £61.95 (US$78).
Speaking to The Spirits Business, Wischhusen cited Covid-19, Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis as contributing factors for the decision.
“We’ve been going for six-and-a-half years, growing the brand to where we wanted it to be, in order to maintain the business,” he said. “But with those things it’s made it very difficult for a startup premium or super-premium Tequila brand to get traction in the market.”
He added: “We’ve seen over the last few years that it’s been very difficult to get traction at our price point in both the on-trade and off-trades. It’s burnt too much cash to maintain.”
‘Straightforward decision’
Of the process from here, Wischhusen called it a “solvent winding up” where the business will sell off the stock, pay off its debts and then distribute all costs to its shareholders.
Among those shareholders is former supermodel and TV personality Jodie Kidd, who Wischhusen says the board members discussed the matter with, “as we did with all our shareholders”.
“It was quite a straightforward decision. In the end, I think that it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to invest back in the brand and be able to take the brand forward,” he explained.
The brand previously raised £400,000 (US$500,000) from an investment round in May 2024, led by the chairman of M&C Saatchi Merlin, Richard Thompson.
The board of the brand’s UK entity has three members: Wischhusen, James Baker and Peter Gaskell.
The brand takes its name from Luis Carlos’s father, Ricardo Grijalva de Leon’s poems of the same name, written in 1947, about the Mexican Revolution.
There are also no plans to bring the brand back in the future, Wischhusen confirmed.
“Pancho Datos was created by Luis Carlos, so his grandfather wrote the Pancho Datos book and in terms of IPs and everything with the book – that still sits with the family,” he said. “They may decide in the future to relaunch a Tequila brand, but for us, there’s no plans right now.
“If it did relaunch, I think it would appear under the same name, but with very different looking guys. That would probably come from the Grijalva family in Mexico, with the brand, the book and the story of Pancho Datos.”
While operations are winding down, there is still availability in select retailers in the UK such as Master of Malt, Casa Agave and Majestic Wine.
“There is still stock in the market, and probably will be for the next few months, if not the next year,” Wischhusen added.
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