Article on Distributor Consolidation in The Drinks Business

The Drinks Business, one of our sponsors for the U.S.Drinks Conference 2008 just ran an article in their Sept. issue on distributor consolidation in the U.S. with a focus on the Glazer's/SWS deal and some comments from me. The article is particularly timely since Rudy Ruiz, EVP of SWS will be speaking on just this issue at the conference. I can't post the whole article here, but drop me a note and I'll forward a copy to you.

Sphere: Related Content

“New Media Marketing” in the International Drinks Business

I'm at our booth at the London International Wine Fair/Distil and I am surprised at the lack of top-of-mind awareness, much less any experience with or understanding of what I’ll call new media marketing. By that I mean everything from organic SEO and PPC to the social marketing programs we’re working on with outreach to bloggers, drinks sites and social networking sites. It simply doesn’t come up in conversations either at Distil or the Wine Fair side of the show. And even when I mention it the response is something vague like, yeah…we sort of heard about that stuff.

And fuhgeddabout e-commerce!….lots of interest but no idea on how to or who to ask about it. We’ve got two very creative solutions we’re developing for those opportunities. And I’ll speak to both of them in future posts. Ta for now. Sphere: Related Content

London International Wine Fair and Distil

(l to r: Cyril Necker, Steve Raye, Eugen Schwartz)
This was my first experience at the LIWF, and also the first time they’ve separated the spirits booths from the wine show into a separate hall. Overall, I’d give it a positive review. While traffic is significantly less on the Distil side, the consensus among exhibitors I spoke to was that the quality and focus of the attendees is pretty high. So, less traffic, but more valuable leads.



I’ve seen a number of clients and friends including Cyril Necker of byNecker---Girl liqueur; Eugen Schwarz from Oval Vodka; Dale Sklar of Wine and Spirit International. with Hapsburg Absinthe and the European HQ of MHW and the U.S. Drinks Conference in London; George Rowley of La Fee Absinthe; Emmanuel Solinsky, Nancy Little and Veronica Lamb of Walders Liqueur fame, Marc Charles of DBI and James Steiner of Cutty Sark. I also met with David Rose of The Drinks Business and Chris Boaz of Just-Drinks, both of whom are sponsoring the U.S. Drinks Conference. And surprisingly had literall run into Dave DeBoer on the street at Canary Wharf on Monday. Dave and I worked together at Heublein, and had a chance to catch up. He left Conn. for the vineyards of California, and has been heading up international sales at Delicato Vineyards since. Sphere: Related Content