U.S. Drinks Conference Expands Educational Offerings at WSWA

For anyone who will be attending the annual WSWA Convention & Exposition in April, we look forward to seeing you at this new educational track offering brought to you by the U.S. Drinks Conference. You can read more about USDC as well on Steve Raye's BATChat blog, where he recapped much of the 2010 conference, or by reading the press release below. Cheers!

Partnership Launched to Expand Educational Offerings at WSWA Convention & Exposition

U.S. Drinks Conference focuses on providing WSWA attendees with practical information to be successful in the U.S. beverage alcohol market.

Washington D.C. (March 8, 2011)—The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) has incorporated a newly expanded educational track to its upcoming 68th Annual Convention & Exposition April 10-13, 2011, in Orlando. The U.S. Drinks Conference (USDC), established in 2007 by Brand Action Team, MHW, Ltd., and Next Level Marketing, will be coordinating the business-related programs at this year’s convention. In 2012, USDC in its entirety will be co-located with WSWA at their convention in Las Vegas.

The USDC has established a reputation for providing practical information that suppliers and distributors can use to introduce and grow brands in the U.S. market. The four programs that USDC will host are slated to feature industry experts and veteran influencers offering key takeaways that attending wholesalers and wine and spirit suppliers can put to work right away.

Sessions will be offered on Tuesday, April 12 from 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. in a multi-track format and will include:

· Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Attendees will hear a panel discuss how suppliers and on- and off-premise wholesalers are leveraging social media to make sales happen.

· How Brand Ambassadors Can Add Value

Suppliers may be paying for them, however, distributors can also benefit from the power of this dynamic resource to engage consumers at the point of purchase.

· Brand Builders: Case Histories of Successful Brand Launches, Expansions and Initiatives

Tune in for a summary “distillation” of the latest industry trends, from the retail, on- and off-premise and consumer perspective.

· Navigating Brand Entry: Understanding the Three-tier system.

Perfect for attendees who are new to market, this seminar will cover the basics of control versus open states and how to navigate the complexities of the unique three-tier system.

“Aligning our convention with WSWA allows us to reach a much broader audience,” said Steve Raye, Managing Partner of Avon, CT-based Brand Action Team, one of the organizers the USDC. “WSWA attracts 2,000 attendees; people who most benefit from the type of information that we provide at the USDC, along with those people implementing practical information on the front lines.”

“We are thrilled to collaborate with USDC to bring added value and commercial substance to our convention program,” WSWA President and CEO Craig Wolf said. “Our goal is to continuously improve the convention and introduce new and interesting elements for the attendees, and the business-related sessions offered this year do just that,” Wolf added.

The partnership between WSWA and USDC efficiently brings new elements to the traditional WSWA convention programming. Noted Raye, “Our partners in USDC, John Beaudette, Mike Ginley and Jeff Grindrod, all agree that there is a tremendous need to provide practical information that wholesalers and suppliers can use to increase sales and margins in this rapidly changing marketplace.”

Raye concluded, “Attendees have the opportunities offered by being at the WSWA convention and, simultaneously, have access to the information from USDC. They fit together very nicely.”

WSWA has also established a special one-day fee of $325 for individuals who want to attend the sessions, but are not able to attend the entire convention. Visit www.wswa2011.org for registration information.

Rob Cooper of St. Germain to Speak at USDC

As you may know, Brand Action Team is one of the organizers of the U.S. Drinks Conference, an event held annually in the past in London and this year will be in NY Oct. 13 and 14. I (Steve) was just at the WSWA (Wine and Spirit Wholesaler's Assn) meeting in Orlando last week and met Rob Cooper of St. Germain who graciously agreed to speak at the conference.

Check out the dets at www.USDrinksConference.com...other speakers committed so far include Ted Roman of Wm. Grant (Hendrick's, Sailor Jerry et al.), Steve Luttman of Leblon Cachaca. If you're interested in attending, give me a call, I know a guy who can get you a discount.

Visit to Western Carriers Warehouse in NJ

For those who aren't aware of it, Western Carriers is the dominant warehousing and logistics company in the US beverage alcohol business. They have two huge warehouses (actually a complex in NJ) and handle just about every supplier and brand wine and spirit sold in the U.S. Western was one of the sponsors of the U.S. Drinks Conference 2008 in London. I had the pleasure of getting a tour of the facility in NJ from Mike Hodes who joined us in London and runs the Western operation along with Marc Cohen.

A couple of observations of note:
-People: It's what makes the difference here. I know, we've all heard that a lot but MBWA (Management by Walking Around) is the defining management strategy and I bet we saw about 200 people during the tour and Mike knew everyone by first name, and had a personal comment for each and every one.
-Scale: Western is huge, with something like 8 warehouses in NJ and a big operation in CA as well. Pretty much every distributor in the U.S. is getting deliveries from Western at least once a week and many once a day.
-Business scope: They not only handle receiving and distribution of imported goods coming into the country but also have divisions that deliver to retail accounts throughout the metro NY area. Standing in the control room for that operation was like being in Minority Report...super high tech.
-Wine Collections: A big part of the biz is with the auction houses...much of what gets auctioned through Christy's and Sotheby's passes through Western's careful quality control.

So, a big thank you to Mike, Marc, Joel Rubins and Joe Pollack for taking the time to show me around, and also for sponsoring the USDC.

U.S Drinks Conference 2008

The U.S. Drinks Conference BAT helped organized was held last week in London, and was an unqualified success. Here's the news release we're sending out

This was the second year that we’ve put on the event in London and this year we had a larger number of delegates from 14 countries (that's if you count Scotland as a country. And we had some notable sponsors come on board this year including Beverage Media, Drinks Business and Just-Drinks.

The roster of speakers this year included some of the top executives in the American Drinks market including Rudy Ruiz, EVP of Southern Wine and Spirits, Vincent O’Brien, Senior Counsel at Nixon Peabody, John McDonnell, COO of Patrón Spirits, Bill Earle, President of the National Association of Beverage Importers, Roy Danis of AV Brands, and conference co-organizer John Beaudette, President of MHW Ltd. The subject matter included case histories and lessons learned by brands that have been successful in the U.S. and a wealth of data on the American market structure. Our Jeff Grindrod and Mike Ginley, President of Next Level presented results of “hot off the presses” research on consumer trends and preferences.

Several themes recurred through the conference including the impact of the global financial crisis on the Drinks industry, aligning distributor and supplier expectations, and the shift in marketing strategies toward more online and non-traditional spending.

Impact of Financial Crisis

“The economic crisis we’re going through is certainly having an impact on the business, but the research results clearly demonstrated that the U.S. beverage alcohol industry is recession-resilient,” commented Ginley of Next Level.
Grindrod added that “we see continued growth in volume and revenue, albeit slowing, and a shift in consumption from on premise to off premise. This is very timely data since much of the survey was completed in the two weeks preceding the conference. Perhaps the most interesting thing we found is that for those folks going out to restaurants, the last thing they tend to cut out is the cocktail, wine or beer part of the meal,” he noted.

Aligning Expectations

Ruiz of Southern Wine and Spirits gave some well received advice to suppliers looking to export their brands to the U.S. “The key to a successful relationship between supplier and distributor is in aligning expectations,” he stressed. “When presenting new brands to Southern, expect to come in with a three year plan including a detailed one year operating plan with realistic expectations on case volume. It is more worthwhile to consider launching in smaller markets, proving your success with programming that demonstrates it’s repeatable.” According to Ruiz, the best demonstration of brand traction is when they see bars and retailers calling Southern and asking for the brand.


Evolution of Internet as Strategic Tool

Steve Raye of Brand Action Team brought home the importance of new online tools such as blogs and social media marketing for brand building. “It’s a noble goal to get visitors to your brand website, but at the end of the day, it’s more important to get your content out to where prospective customers already are spending their time…reading blogs, searching for recipes, reading comments on wines that other consumers have posted. Indeed, research shows that 65% of consumers read reviews online before purchasing a product.”

The US Continues As The Worlds Best Beverage Alcohol Market For New Brands

As John Beaudette summarized at day’s end, imports continue to drive growth across all beverage alcohol categories. “Considering the emergence of Eastern Europe, the Far East, and the rest of the world, we recognize that suppliers have many options in terms of investing behind new or existing brands. We hope we’ve clearly demonstrated that America is still the primary destination you should target”.