Decision & Partnership · September 11, 2026
Avenor vs Park Street for Non-Alcoholic Brands
Park Street runs the alcohol back office: TTB, COLA, licences, cases.
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. Park Street does the first three well, for alcohol, with more than 3,000 alcoholic beverage brands served. 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. The product decides which back office; the scope of the work decides whether you need us. 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 | Park Street | Avenor |
|---|---|---|
| Importing and federal compliance | Yes: TTB permits, COLA filings, FDA facility registration | Yes: FDA registration, US agent, FSVP, Prior Notice, FDA labelling |
| State licences and registrations | Yes: import, wholesale and brand registrations, excise tax | Not needed for an FDA-regulated beverage in most states; we handle the states that differ |
| Warehousing and case logistics | Yes: NY, NJ, CA, FL and the EU | Yes: food-grade 3PLs chosen per brand for glass and single-unit shipping |
| Wholesale distribution | Yes: licensed wholesaler, direct-to-retail in four states, national reach | We do not sell distribution. We place brands with distributors and retail buyers and coordinate them |
| Accounting and depletion reporting | Yes: accounting, depletion data, chargebacks, working capital | Yes: operations and finance reporting through AvenorOS |
| Storefront and bottle-by-bottle fulfillment to consumers | Not described on their service pages | Yes: we build and run it |
| Amazon | Not described on their service pages | Yes: listing, fulfillment, advertising |
| Sampling and events | Trade shows it manages for suppliers, importer of record for competitions, and "sample management"; consumer sampling is not described | Yes: consumer and trade sampling, run by us |
| Field sales | Their site says Park Street "does not provide sales and marketing services"; it connects clients to sales agents and brokers | 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 | Advisory and business intelligence | Yes: the story a buyer hears, the demand behind the shelf, the first ninety days |
Every entry in the Park Street column is taken from parkstreet.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). This is the lane Park Street was built for, and their compliance page describes it in detail: "preparation, filing, and tracking of Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) applications," "state import licenses," "state wholesale licenses," "federal import permits," state excise tax reporting, and FDA facility registrations.
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 back office holds the licences even for a product that calls itself non-alcoholic.
Where Park Street 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 a licensed wholesaler of record in New York, New Jersey, California or Florida and want it to be your compliance provider. You want early payment on your distributor invoices. 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, a firm with 3,000 alcohol brands behind it 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 Park Street on this page comes from their own site, read on 11 October 2026:
- Park Street home — "Importing, Distributing for Wine and Spirits Brands"; "helps emerging and established alcoholic beverage companies"; "over 3,000 Alcoholic Beverage brands"; services named: accounting, advisory and business intelligence, operations (importing, exporting, logistics, order fulfillment), distribution, compliance, working capital; all 50 states plus the European Union; warehouses in NY, NJ, CA, FL and the EU; direct sales in NY, NJ, CA, FL.
- Compliance services — COLA preparation and filing with the TTB; state import, wholesale and brand registrations; federal import and wholesale permits; state excise tax; FDA facility registrations and inspections.
- Distribution services — direct-to-retail sales in FL, NY, NJ and CA and national distribution; "can supply wholesalers/distributors in all 50 states with wine, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages."
- Operations — "Sample management"; "Sales broker management."
- Tools — "Park Street does not provide sales and marketing services" and connects clients to sales agents and brokers.
- Supplier managed events and competitions — trade shows "that Park Street directly oversees"; "Park Street can be your importer of record" for the competitions listed.
- Working capital — "early payment advances to invoices generated by Park Street to customers, such as distributors."
- Suppliers — supplier categories, including "Non-Alcoholic."
- Investments in Non-Alcoholic Spirits On the Rise — their editorial on the category.
If we have described Park Street's services wrongly, write to us and we will correct the page.
Frequently asked questions
Does Park Street work with non-alcoholic brands?
Their distribution page says they can supply wholesalers and distributors in all 50 states with "wine, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages," and their supplier list has a non-alcoholic category. Their other service pages name wine, spirits and beer; we have not found a page describing how they handle a 0.0% product, as of October 2026. A brand should ask them directly; this page reports what their materials say.
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 Park Street?
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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