Six Years in the Making: How Watershed Distillery Built — and Successfully Exited — with FocusCFO

The Situation

Greg Lehman founded Watershed Distillery in 2010 and built it into the producer of Ohio's number one selling bourbon and gin portfolios. With a target exit date of 2030 in mind, Lehman engaged FocusCFO in 2017 — six years ahead of schedule — to build the financial infrastructure that would make a successful sale possible. Fractional CFO Jim Zins became an embedded member of the leadership team from the start. 

Watch the video below to hear more from Greg Lehman and Jim Zins about their experience working together:

What We Did

Over six years as an embedded financial partner, their FocusCFO CFO:

• Implemented strategic budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting practices
• Navigated the unique capital planning challenges of a distillery investing heavily in aging bourbon inventory
• Guided tax, exit strategy, and M&A planning by leveraging the FocusCFO expert network
• Prepared the business to be both ready and attractive when an acquisition opportunity emerged
• Created the financial presentation for the buyer, coordinated with the advisory team, and managed all due diligence materials through a successful sale to a multinational food and beverage group in 2023

The Result

When an unexpected acquisition offer arrived in 2023, seven years ahead of the original target, Watershed was ready. The deal closed successfully, and Lehman credits Jim Zins' preparation as central to the outcome.

"When the buyers approached us, Jim had all our ducks in a row on the financial side. That was so valuable to the buyer. I know I didn't have the expertise, but with Jim beside me, I looked really smart."

— Greg Lehman, Founder & CEO, Watershed Distillery

Ready to start building value in your business?

Contact FocusCFO today and learn how our Fractional CFO program can help you achieve your financial goals.