Sammy Hagar - Business Interests

Business Interests

• In the 1990s, Hagar bought a mountain bike store, then built another called Sausalito Cyclery, soon rated the number one independent bike store in California. Hagar designed a mountain bike called the "Red Rocker", built with a red frame by Gary Fisher and black components; no chrome.
• Hagar owns a nightclub and restaurant in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico called Cabo Wabo Cantina, where the video for the 1999 hit song "Mas Tequila" (from the Red Voodoo album) was filmed. Hagar plays at the club during his annual autumn "Birthday Bash". Hagar also has opened another nightclub in the franchise in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and markets a highly successful line of premium tequilas by the same Cabo Wabo name. Cabo Wabo Cantina opened in Fresno CA on August 29, 2008. However, it closed a few months later when the operator had a falling out with Hagar. In November 2009, a Cabo Wabo Cantina opened in the Planet Hollywood Hotel's Miracle Mile shopping mall, directly off the strip in Las Vegas.
• In early 2009, Hagar opened "Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill" at Harrah's Casino in St. Louis, Missouri. Shortly after, another was opened in the Southwest Airlines terminal at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, NV. Hagar donates all of the profits of both locations to local charities.
• It was announced on May 7, 2007 that Hagar was selling an 80% interest in his Cabo Wabo Tequila to Gruppo Campari, the world's seventh-largest spirits company, for $80 million. Skyy Spirits of San Francisco, a vodka producer and subsidiary of Milan's Gruppo Campari, will market Cabo Wabo globally, with continued participation by Hagar. Gerry Ruvo, president and chief executive of Skyy Spirits said "Sammy has done a fantastic job building the brand, so we are going to obviously spend time with him and work with him to continue our efforts to take the brand to an even larger level, both here in the U.S. and, more important, globally." Ruvo said Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, Germany and Italy are considered key expansion markets for Tequila. Hagar created Cabo Wabo Tequila to serve patrons at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He began to distribute it in 1999. In 2007, his company sold 147,000 cases, making it the second-best-selling premium Tequila in the United States, he said in a telephone interview. Cabo Wabo Enterprises, based in Novato, Calif., earned about $60 million in sales in 2007.
• In the summer of 2010 Hagar will open a beach bar at the Ballys Casino on the Atlantic City beach.
• When asked how he has balanced being a rock star and tequila mogul, Hagar responded: "I always had other people doing everything. It was my palate and my concept. I would go in taste and say, 'Leave this in the barrel a little bit longer.' That was my job. I could do that right before I went on stage. That’s a perfect time to do it, as a matter of fact!"
• In November 2011, Hagar launched Sammy's Beach Bar Rum in Hawaii. It is currently being rolled out to other North American markets.
• In September, 2012, Hagar opened 'Sammy's Rockin' Island Bar & Grill' in Roseville, California, just outside Sacramento. Sammy announced to the crowd at opening, "This is really a cool place 'cause it's got history, it's got soul!"