Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/188061
Southern Wine & Spirits New York at a Glance Romer, SWS of New York's Senior Vice President, General Manager, Spirits, added, "They were pumped up, they were engaged; it was really part of our DNA." When SWS acquired its New York operations, it inherited a 220,000-square-foot warehouse in Syosset, Long Island—and no distribution facilities in Upstate New York, a market geographically larger than many other U.S. states. Meeting that challenge, Southern expanded Syosset to over half a million square feet and built an Upstate facility in Syracuse that—with its current addition coming online in November of this year—will total over 400,000 square feet. Between these two facilities, Southern is on its way to delivering a total of 14 million cases this year. Because the products and consumer demographics are so different between Upstate and Metro, few synergies exist between the two regions operations. But never mind that—nine years and two locations later, some 1,700 employees and the two warehouses keep the New York machine well-oiled. In addition to Southern's Operations investments and leadership in New York, it's the Sales and Marketing dedication and prowess that have 2004: acquired Premier Wine & Spirits of New York (Metro New York) and Letchworth Wine & Spirits (New York Upstate distribution) 63.6% of the business (net dollars) is the New York Metro area and 36.4% is Upstate business Account breakdown: 3,200 off-premise and 17 ,500 on-premise Best-sellers by category: red wine (22.9%); white wine (18.9%); vodka (16%). helped SWS of New York to define its leadership position in such a short time. Southern is leapfrogging the competition with proprietary technology. Over two dozen salespeople in New York are using SalesNav, an insight-rich intelligence tool that helps them identify consumption trends at a local level and approach accounts that are missing those brand opportunities. "We can say, 'Here's your block and here is what the trends are' and help them fill in the gaps between merchandise and demographics," says Senior Vice President, General Manager, Wine Munn, the tech guru of the trio. The technology allows Southern professionals to understand and profile better channels (e.g., on-premise dining), sub channels (e.g., fine dining) and even the sub-sub channels (e.g., French fine dining) to mine insightful consumer trends and build a plan with their customers and suppliers to manage growth. "When we break it down to sub-channels at specific price points and regions, we can really provide our suppliers and customers with the most insightful data in the industry," Munn explains. It's data on the go—SWS-style—and it's the future of the company, says Munn, who has completely cut the cord from a laptop or desktop. "I'm 100 percent tablet-based in everything I do. There's really nothing we can't do on a tablet or an iPhone. If you want to know ratings, you're one click away, you've got your Wine Spectator app or you've got your Yelp app." "We don't judge ourselves against other wine and spirits distributors: We're looking at Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble and other CPG companies that are best-in-class," Goodrich says. "We don't merely want to become the best wine and spirits distributor: We want to be the best distributor—period." 144 / the tasting panel / october 2013 TP1013_104-152.indd 144 9/23/13 10:37 PM