Origami Sake Poised For Breakout Growth

Three years after Arkansas Business first broke the news that the state was getting its first sake brewery, Origami Sake in Hot Springs, the business is poised for breakout growth.

After signing with a new distributor in December, Republic Nation Distributing Co., Origami, now in 15 states, plans to expand to 36 markets this year, said Matt Bell. Bell co-founded Origami Sake with Little Rock native and sake specialist Ben Bell. (The two men are not related.)

In addition, the sake brewery is getting in on the growing market for nonalcoholic drinks with the introduction of Zero, the first nonalcoholic sake in the United States.

RNDC is the second-largest alcohol distributor in the country, behind only Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. Origami does business with several distributors — in Arkansas, Moon Distributors — but the partnership with RNDC allows the brewery to move into major markets where sake sales are strong, Bell said, states like California and Florida and in the Northeast and Northwest. That means Origami, now in states that account for about 80% of sake sales, will expand its reach into the states accounting for close to 90% of sales, Bell said.

With increased distribution comes the need to increase production. Origami produced about 100,000 liters of sake last year, Bell said, but is on pace to produce 600,000 liters this year.

“It hasn’t been a production issue for us,” he said. “We’ve had the capacity since we started to do this scale. We just didn’t have the distribution. We had to make sure we had a good track record with the states where we started. We started just in Arkansas for pretty much the first year. And now that we’ve got our formulations all dialed in, and now distribution, is now where we’re really going to a national plan.”

As part of Origami’s growth, the brewery has added five regional managers covering major market territories.

As for Zero, Bell noted that the nonalcoholic spirits market is surging. The global nonalcoholic spirits market is expected to grow by 8.7% a year from 2024 to 2030, according to business research firm Grand View Research. There are several reasons for this, including a population that is more health conscious and a younger generation that is drinking less.

The Wall Street Journal last month reported on the decline in whiskey sales in the U.S., noting that drinkers were cutting back. “The growing popularity of anti-obesity drugs, cannabis and low- and no-alcohol drinks is increasingly hurting sales, too,” it said.

While low-alcoholic and nonalcoholic wine, beer and spirits have grown in popularity — representing about 6% of all beverage sales, Bell said — there was no similar sake product. Origami saw an opportunity there, so it launched Zero.

“It was a unique opportunity for us to get our foot in the door with a lot of typical, on-premise accounts that need a nonalcoholic option for their sake,” he said. “It was a strategy for developing that market.”

Zero is not only “delicious,” Bell said, “it’s a very healthy beverage.” He expects others to enter the nonalcoholic sake market within the next six months.

Sales at Origami, which employs about 25, totaled between $500,000 and $1 million in 2024, Bell said.

Although alcohol sales in the United States are trending downward, Bell is not concerned. “We actually think it’s an opportunity for us,” he said. “It really just shows a trend of people making better choices for beverages and what they’re putting in their body,” adding, “Sake, in general, is probably one of the healthiest alternative alcohols you can drink.”