Seneca College RED 2020 - 24

Bottle by bottle
Monica Sanita and Alex Lacroix travel road to success

FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS, Monica Sanita and Alex Lacroix,
Seneca sweethearts and co-founders of Siempre Tequila,
have been criss-crossing North America in their tequila
truck. They've hit every pub, bar and restaurant they
could find to market their product. Often, it is non-stop
eight hours at the wheel as one of them drives and the
other works from the passenger seat with the Wi-Fi on.
The truck is their office and their home.
They call it building business one bottle at a time.
Ms. Sanita and Mr. Lacroix's relentless push for
success has put Siempre on the map of luxury alcohol
brands. It is now available at LCBO and it is stocked
by more than 1,000 independent retailers and 500
restaurants throughout the U.S., Ireland and Canada.
" We started with 150 cases and now we sell
13,000 cases, " Mr. Lacroix says. " We are in 20 markets
across the world and 11 states. Siempre is a project
driven by passion. "
The Siempre story started at Seneca when Ms.

RED

2020

Sanita and Mr. Lacroix met in the Creative Advertising
diploma program. While Ms. Sanita is from Toronto,
Mr. Lacroix came from Ottawa. He was on bail, looking
for a break from a checkered past. Seneca, he says,
rescued him.
" Seneca was my first chance at higher education, "
Mr. Lacroix says. " I realized there are a lot of great
people in the world to help you. It was life-changing. "
Mr. Lacroix received the Peter Weis Bursary and
graduated with an internship that led him to his first
job at a creative agency. Ms. Sanita worked as a strategist, but they both wanted to create something that
mirrored them and their beliefs. The inspiration came
from Ms. Sanita's Mexican roots.
" My mom is Mexican-born and tequila runs in my
blood, " Ms. Sanita says. " We decided to create the
perfect tequila. "
They left their jobs, scanned more than 100 distilleries and found their master distiller in the small town
of Tequila, Mexico. They named their liquor Siempre,
which means " always. "
" People said we were crazy and that it took more
than $ 1 million to launch an alcohol brand, " Ms. Sanita
says. " All we had was $9,000 and a couple of credit
cards. We decided to do everything ourselves. It was
Seneca that gave us the tools we needed to be confident
in making that decision. "
" Every single time we encounter a difficult situation,
we recall the work ethic taught to us at Seneca.
We ask ourselves how a particular professor would
have handled this type of situation. The program
taught us more than advertising. It taught us that
absolutely anything is possible if you really work hard
to get to the goal. "

PHOTO: IAN PATTERSON

People said we
were crazy
and that it took
more than
$ 1 million to
launch an
alcohol brand.

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