Walk into most liquor stores in the US and shoppers will be met with shelves crowded with hundreds of spirits bottles. Yet typically less than 2% of the brands on sale will be Black-owned.This imbalance drove one Washington DC-based content creator and drinks enthusiast to launch his own e-commerce platform dedicated exclusively to Black-owned spirits in April. Charles Everett’s UrFriendCharles site combines curated shopping with cultural storytelling to help consumers discover and support underrepresented entrepreneurs in the beverage industry.For Everett, one of the biggest problems Blac
The e-commerce start-up putting Black-owned spirits on the map – Market Intel
Charles Everett, the founder of UrFriendCharles, has turned a TikTok hobby into a nationwide e-commerce business with a bold levelling-up agenda.

Joe has been a business journalist for over 20 years, specialising in the drinks, aviation and Global Travel Retail sectors; Duty-Free News International, IWSR Magazine, Drinks International and Whisky Magazine, among others.



