Why this exists
Three tiers. Different licenses. Different roles.
After Prohibition, the United States separated the alcohol trade into three licensed tiers. A producer sells to an importer. The importer sells to a distributor. The distributor sells to the retailer or the restaurant. With few exceptions, no company may hold every tier, and a foreign winery cannot simply ship and sell.
The winery. Sells to a U.S. importer — it cannot sell into the market directly from abroad.
Holds the federal permit, files the compliance, takes legal ownership when the wine clears customs.
Licensed state by state. In the traditional wholesale route, this is the link to retail and on-premise.
Wine shops, chains, restaurants, hotels. Where the bottle finally meets the customer.
You don't need to build the middle tiers. You need access to them.
What we handle
Six functions that have to exist before anything is sold.
Importer-of-record functions
The importer of record is the U.S. entity that takes legal responsibility for the shipment: the federal permit, the customs entry, the excise tax, the liability. It is the role a foreign winery cannot hold from abroad.
Your wine enters under our affiliated licensed structure, so you don't have to incorporate, apply and wait before your first container moves.
You provide: the wine, the documentation and the label artwork. We handle: everything from the permit onward.
Compliance
Federal label approval (COLA) through the TTB, FDA facility registration and prior notice, and the state registrations that let a product be sold in each jurisdiction. Florida through the DBPR, and every other state on its own terms.
Compliance is where most first-time entries stall — not because it is hard, but because each step depends on the one before it and nobody is watching the calendar.
Handled in-house, by the same team that runs the operation.
Licensed warehousing
Alcohol cannot be stored just anywhere. It has to sit in a licensed facility that meets alcohol storage and reporting requirements, under temperature control, with the inventory recorded.
If your wine is already in the United States — with another importer, another distributor or in your own stock — that doesn't have to change. Hubly can integrate with the structure that already exists instead of replacing it.
Inventory and logistics
Ocean freight, customs clearance, drayage and the movement between the warehouse and wherever the wine needs to go next.
Inventory is tracked by SKU and by lot, so you know what is on hand, what is committed and what needs to be on the next container.
Fulfillment and order processing
An order arrives from a distributor, a retailer or a customer. Someone has to confirm it, pick it, ship it and document it under the rules of the state it is going to.
This is the part that turns a commercial agreement into a delivered case, and it is unglamorous enough that it is usually underestimated.
Invoicing and collections
Invoices issued from a U.S. entity, in dollars, on U.S. payment terms — and somebody following up when they are not paid.
Selling is not finished when the wine ships. It is finished when the money arrives.
U.S. import operations are carried through Buenavida Imports LLC, our affiliated licensed importer and distributor, operating from Miami since 2019.
What it isn't
Not a bridge you are supposed to cross and leave.
Some structures are sold as a temporary step: use ours for a year, then build your own. That is one option, and for some brands it eventually makes sense. It is not the plan.
A winery can operate under this structure indefinitely, and many should. Building your own U.S. entity means permits, staff, a warehouse contract and a compliance calendar — real fixed cost that only pays for itself at real volume.
Hubly is not a temporary structure. It is the structure.
Start here
Two minutes to see where you stand.
Take the two-minute Start and we'll show you the most practical path for your winery in the U.S.