Decision & Partnership · September 11, 2026
Avenor vs MHW for Non-Alcoholic Brands
MHW, an alcohol importer and distributor of record since 1995, sells to wholesalers in 50 states.
Nick Bodkins · Co-founder, Avenor · New York
A US launch is a set of jobs: importing and compliance, warehousing, distribution, the storefront, Amazon, sampling and events, field sales, press, an owned customer list, the brand itself, and the reporting that ties them together. MHW does the first three at national scale, for beverage alcohol, and has been in business since 1995: importer of record, licensed distributor of record, and sales to wholesalers in all fifty states. In our experience that is about a quarter of what a brand has to get done in its first year. Avenor does the rest for non-alcoholic houses, and sits above the back office, integrated with the brand team, whoever holds the licences underneath. This page sets out both from their materials and ours, as of October 2026.
A back office is a quarter of a launch
| Job in a US launch | MHW | Avenor |
|---|---|---|
| Importing and federal compliance | Yes: "Federal import permits," TTB and COLA label approvals, "US FDA brand agent registrations" for samples | Yes: FDA registration, US agent, FSVP, Prior Notice, FDA labelling |
| State licences and registrations | Yes: "State wholesale licenses," trucking and out-of-state shipper permits, "permits secured and maintained" | Not needed for an FDA-regulated beverage in most states; we handle the states that differ |
| Warehousing and case logistics | Yes: "shipping logistics" as distributor of record | Yes: food-grade 3PLs chosen per brand for glass and single-unit shipping |
| Wholesale distribution | Yes: "sells to wholesalers in all 50 states and to 22,000+ retailers across New York, New Jersey, California and Florida" | We do not sell distribution. We place brands with distributors and retail buyers and coordinate them |
| Accounting and depletion reporting | Yes: accounting, back-office services and "Real-Time Reporting" | Yes: operations and finance reporting through AvenorOS |
| Storefront and bottle-by-bottle fulfillment to consumers | "E-Commerce Fulfilment": access to US consumers "through licensed e-commerce retail networks," and orders from licensed e-commerce platforms in NY, NJ, CA and FL | Yes: we build and run it |
| Amazon | Not described for the US; their EU fulfilment page names Amazon EU as an e-commerce partner | Yes: listing, fulfillment, advertising |
| Sampling and events | Sample import for events and competitions | Yes: consumer and trade sampling, run by us |
| Field sales | "MHW does not have a sales team" (their distribution FAQ); add-on HR and payroll for a brand's own US sales staff | Yes: we build and run the field team, city by city |
| Press and PR | Not described on their service pages | Yes |
| Owned customer list and retention | Not described on their service pages | Yes: first-party data in a database the brand controls |
| Brand and demand | BRANDARC by MHW: route-to-market consulting, label and bottle design, beverage product creation; a "Sales Enablement" service that helps clients apply for solicitor's and marketing permits | Yes: the story a buyer hears, the demand behind the shelf, the first ninety days |
| Non-alcoholic on the site | Yes: a dedicated page, "Non-Alcoholic Beverage Importer & National Wholesaler," importing NA spirits, aperitifs and RTD cocktails to wholesalers; the federal compliance page lists "non-alcoholic label requirements for foreign producers"; the compliance FAQ lists beverage alcohol categories and invites other products to get in touch | The only category we work in |
Every entry in the MHW column is taken from mhwltd.com as of October 2026 and linked below. "Not described on their service pages" means exactly that; we do not infer what they will or will not do.
Alcohol and non-alcoholic run in different lanes
A beverage of 0.5% ABV or more is an alcoholic beverage under federal law (27 CFR 16.10). In most cases it needs a TTB permit to import (27 CFR 1.20), a Certificate of Label Approval before it ships, and a licensed importer and wholesaler in each state under the three-tier system. A wine under 7% ABV is one exception: it needs neither the permit nor the COLA and is labelled under FDA rules (27 CFR 4.7). MHW was built for that lane and describes it plainly: federal import permits, state wholesale licences, TTB and COLA label approvals, and a licensed distributor of record that "handles state-by-state compliance and shipping logistics." Their compliance FAQ says they support "all beverage alcohol categories (wine, spirits, beer, cider, ready-to-drinks cocktails, and flavored malt beverages)" and asks brands outside those categories to get in touch.
A beverage under 0.5% ABV is, in most cases, a food. The FDA regulates it. The work is food facility registration and a US agent (21 CFR 1.225, 1.227), a Foreign Supplier Verification Program (21 CFR 1.502), Prior Notice on every shipment (21 CFR 1.279), and an FDA-format label (21 CFR part 101). There is no COLA, no TTB permit, and in most states no three-tier requirement, which is why a non-alcoholic brand can sell a single bottle to a consumer in Ohio, or list on Amazon, within weeks. This is the lane Avenor was built for.
Below 0.5%, a wine can also be sold, in most states, to shops that hold no alcohol licence, such as coffee shops and yoga studios, and to the independent retailers that order on Faire and Airgoods. A wine at 0.5% or more, including a partially de-alcoholised wine that keeps its appellation, stays in the alcohol lane. Two ways into the US for an alcohol-free wine sets out both routes side by side.
The two lanes overlap at the edges. A malt-based non-alcoholic beer stays under TTB labelling rules at any ABV (FDA CPG Sec. 510.400). Our guide to FDA and TTB jurisdiction sets that case out; it is the case where an alcohol-licensed importer holds the permits even for a product that calls itself non-alcoholic. MHW's non-alcoholic page says it plainly: some non-alcoholic spirits are outside the TTB, and brands work with an alcohol importer "so that they have the infrastructure and an accessible route to sell to their beverage alcohol distributors." That is the alcohol lane, chosen on purpose, and it is one of the two lanes a 0.0% product can take.
Where MHW is the right call
Your product is alcoholic. Your non-alcoholic product is a malt-based beer, or a dealcoholized wine that still tests at 0.5% ABV or more. You need one licensed importer and distributor of record that can sell to wholesalers in every state, and directly to retailers in New York, New Jersey, California or Florida. You want a national platform that has done this for thousands of brands over thirty years. You have your own US brand team, your own field sales and your own agency, and what you need is the licences held and the cases moved. In each of these, MHW is the specialist for that quarter of the work.
Where Avenor is the right call
You have no US team and no US entity, and the brand has to be run by someone. You want a bottle at a time selling to consumers, and on Amazon, within weeks, with retail built on that velocity. You want sampling in market before a buyer meeting, a field team in your first two cities, press that a buyer has read, and a customer list the brand owns. You want the distributors coordinated and the story a buyer hears kept consistent. You want the people doing this to have run a non-alcoholic business before, and to answer the phone. You want to see the operation — inventory, orders, cash, accounts — without building a team to produce the reports. That is the work we do, and it is the only category we do it in.
Avenor sits above the back office
The two are combined more often than they are chosen between. A house with a sparkling wine and a 0.0% sparkling from the same cellar keeps the wine with an alcohol back office end to end, and the 0.0% runs in the FDA lane, selling direct while the TTB is still reviewing the wine's label. A brand whose non-alcoholic beer is malt-based needs the alcohol licences held by a licensed importer and still needs the storefront, the sampling, the field team and the press. In both, the back office holds the permits and moves the cases, and we run the brand above it, integrated with the founders and whoever they have hired, with the back office as one of the partners we coordinate. We have run that structure before, and the division is clean. The partners a brand can pair with, by category, are in our directory of US importers and distributors, and the channel order we run above them is in our guide to non-alcoholic beverage distribution in the US.
Sources
Every claim about MHW on this page comes from their own site, read on 11 October 2026:
- MHW home — "Since 1995, MHW has helped thousands of brands enter the United States beverage market"; "MHW sells to wholesalers in all 50 states and to 22,000+ retailers across New York, New Jersey, California and Florida"; category navigation including "Non-Alcoholic Beverages"; sample services: "US FDA brand agent registrations," "TTB COLA waiver submissions," "FDA Prior Notice instructions"; licence management: "Federal import permits," "State wholesale licenses," "State transportation and trucking permits," "Out of State Shipper permits"; "E-Commerce Fulfilment": "Access US consumers directly through licensed e-commerce retail networks."
- Non-alcoholic brands — "MHW Ltd. specializes in importing premium non-alcoholic spirits, aperitifs, and ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, helping them access wholesalers across the US"; "many premium brands choose to work with beverage alcohol importers so that they have the infrastructure and an accessible route to sell to their beverage alcohol distributors"; BRANDARC, Sales Enablement and Real-Time Reporting from the site navigation.
- About MHW — "Since 1995, MHW has been dedicated to delivering service excellence in the global beverage alcohol industry"; European Union services since 2018.
- Compliance — "Label Approvals: TTB & COLA management," "State Compliance: Permits secured and maintained"; "We support all beverage alcohol categories (wine, spirits, beer, cider, ready-to-drinks cocktails, and flavored malt beverages). If your product falls outside of these categories, please still feel free to reach out."
- National wholesale distribution — "MHW serves as the licensed distributor of record and handles state-by-state compliance and shipping logistics"; "MHW could still be your importer of record and sell to your distributor in these states"; "No, MHW does not have a sales team"; orders from "licensed e-commerce platforms" in New York, New Jersey, California and Florida.
- Federal regulatory compliance — "Non-alcoholic label requirements for foreign producers."
- Sales enablement — help applying for solicitor's and marketing permits. Human resources — payroll, benefits and commissions for a brand's US employees.
- EU fulfilment — "e-commerce partners like Amazon EU."
If we have described MHW's services wrongly, write to us and we will correct the page.
Frequently asked questions
Does MHW work with non-alcoholic brands?
Yes. Their site has a page for non-alcoholic brands: importing premium NA spirits, aperitifs and RTD cocktails and selling them to wholesalers across the US, through the alcohol-lane infrastructure that implies. Their federal compliance page lists non-alcoholic label requirements for foreign producers; their compliance FAQ lists beverage alcohol categories and invites other products to get in touch. A brand with a 0.0% product should ask which lane they would run it in; this page reports what their materials say as of October 2026.
Can a non-alcoholic brand use an alcohol importer of record?
Yes, and sometimes it must. A malt-based non-alcoholic beer stays under TTB labelling rules and takes a TTB importer's permit (27 CFR 1.20), and a dealcoholized wine at 0.5% ABV or more is still an alcoholic beverage (27 CFR 16.10); for both, an alcohol importer is the right holder. For a beverage the FDA treats as a food, an alcohol licence is not required, and the FSVP importer is the US owner or consignee, or a US agent the foreign owner designates (21 CFR 1.500).
Is Avenor a distributor?
No. We do not sell distribution. We act as importer of record, run the brand and the operation, and place brands with distributors and retail buyers who take title, then coordinate them. Our directory of US non-alcoholic distributors lists the partners we introduce brands to.
Can Avenor work alongside MHW?
Yes. When a product needs the alcohol lane, an alcohol back office holds the licences and moves the cases, and we run the brand above it: storefront, Amazon, sampling, field sales, press, the customer list, and the coordination between all of them. We have run that structure before.
Why does the 0.5% line matter so much?
It is the federal threshold between a food and an alcoholic beverage. Below it, in most cases, your product is FDA-regulated with no three-tier requirement; above it, it is TTB-regulated with all that follows. Our guide to FDA and TTB jurisdiction covers the exceptions.
Written by
Nick Bodkins
Co-founder, Avenor · New York
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