As more brands enter the market, it’s increasingly important for brands to understand the retail landscape to sell their product. In this presentation from Bar Convent Berlin, Chris Maffeo, Founder of Maffeo Drinks, reveals how to work with your distributor to create retail sales. Maffeo emphasizes the utility of understanding your distributors needs, as well as the needs of bars, restaurants, and consumers.
Each state in the U.S. regulates beverage alcohol in its own unique way and each major city in the U.S. has its own culture. When selling to retailers across the U.S., it’s important to take culture, demographics, and their specific needs into account. In this presentation from Bar Convent Berlin, Chris Ladas, Founder of XAL Consulting, uses Miami, Las Vegas, and New York as examples of how different regions can require different approaches in order to make sales.
How to Help Your Distributor Create Retail Sales
Chris Maffeo (00:10)
I am originally Italian, but over the last 17 years, I have lived across six European countries and worked for major global brewers across more than 30 markets. My focus has always been export expansion—building major brands in international territories where they had zero initial brand awareness. Three years ago, I founded Maffeo Drinks. I now consult with founders and brand owners, sharing insights on global market commonalities and entry strategies. Today, my focus is on European expansion, while Chris Ladas will cover the US market. To start: “It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.” Industry media constantly focuses on massive M&A exits and million-dollar buyouts, making rapid success look effortless. However, most brands bought by major conglomerates worked tirelessly for years or decades, making 1% incremental improvements every day. Building a brand sustainably requires stepping outside the corporate meeting room. Real market insights come from sitting directly at the bar, observing consumer behavior, seeing how bartenders communicate your liquid, and making your brand truly “bar-proof.”
Chris Maffeo (03:13)
Historically, brands could be built top-down through importers and distributors because far fewer brands existed. Over the last decade, a proliferation of new craft brands—whether gin in Europe or tequila in the US—has overwhelmed conventional distribution channels. Modern brand building must occur bottom-up. Instead of searching blindly for a generic importer, brand owners must conduct deep market analysis:
- Identify the top target bars for your specific brand profile in a target city (e.g., Berlin, London, Paris).
- Speak directly with those target bars to discover which specific wholesalers they order from.
- Approach those specific wholesalers—the actual partners who serve your ideal accounts—rather than pitching an ill-fitting national importer.
Chris Maffeo (05:27)
Brand owners must focus on selling with distributors rather than selling to distributors. An initial order means nothing if inventory sits stagnant in a warehouse. Importers and wholesalers need to clear inventory quickly to generate recurring reorders.
- Importers (Horizontal): Represent brands nationally. They maintain 5 to 10 sales reps covering an entire country (e.g., across London, Manchester, and Glasgow).
- Wholesalers (Vertical): Focus intensely on specific cities, employing dozens of sales reps within a single metropolitan area to drive localized account velocity.
To maintain active distribution, your brand must be relevant across three levels:
- Emotional Relevance: Fostering authentic personal relationships with venue owners and bartenders.
- Strategic Relevance: Filling a clear cocktail or menu gap for the venue (e.g., providing a craft mezcal for a specialized cocktail program).
- Financial Relevance: Ensuring every link in the value chain—importer, wholesaler, and venue—earns sufficient margin. If a venue does not earn a healthy margin, a competitor offering better margins will replace your placement.
Chris Maffeo (10:01)
The drinks industry chain works backward from the guest’s glass, not top-down from the distillery:
Rather than competing endlessly for overcrowded aperitif or Spritz menu slots, position your brand around a distinct occasion. Successful brands align as a “winning trio,” balancing three elements:
- What the brand represents to the consumer.
- How the brand complements the distributor’s portfolio.
- How the brand fits onto the venue’s back bar.
Chris Maffeo (12:18)
When assessing distribution, depth of velocity is far more valuable than broad, single-bottle trial placements. Selling one case per month to a single bar (1 case x 1 bar) drives far more sustainable value than spreading six bottles across six different accounts (1 bottle x 6 bars) where repeat purchase intent is unmonitored.
Crucially, minor operational details frequently derail account reorders:
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Delivery cases arriving in venue cellars without the bar staff’s knowledge.
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Reorders failing because only a single buyer was trained while floor bartenders were overlooked.
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Sales reps failing to provide basic staff training to drive rate-of-sale.
Chris Maffeo (14:51)
Relying solely on the individual charisma of a single founder or star brand ambassador is not scalable. Building long-term brand equity requires establishing repeatable operational systems to generate pull-through demand efficiently. Furthermore, balance “hunter” and “farmer” sales roles:
- Hunters: Acquire new account placements.
- Farmers: Maintain relationship touchpoints, deliver staff education, and ensure depletion velocity.
Always measure net new distribution. Acquiring 10 new accounts while losing 4 existing accounts yields a net gain of only 6 accounts. Tracking actual account retention ensures long-term growth. To learn more or subscribe to my weekly newsletter, visit winningwithdrinks.com. Thank you!
The Key to Selling Beverage Alcohol in Different US Markets
Chris Ladas (00:10)
My name is Chris Ladas, founder of XAL Consulting based out of Miami, Florida. I am a beverage industry veteran having worked across small, medium, and large suppliers—starting my career with major brands like Brown-Forman and Jack Daniels—and collaborating with all the major US distributors, including Southern Glazer’s, Breakthru Beverage, and RNDC. After my sales career, I founded a consulting firm to advise young brands on entering the US market. We provide guidance on US sales and marketing, brand creation, distributor management, bottling, brand registration, and strategic partnerships. We frequently work with Park Street, a company that has transformed the US craft beverage landscape by offering wholesale licensing and market access without forcing emerging brands to align immediately with a national distributor.
Chris Ladas (02:00)
While the US represents the world’s premier market for wine and spirits, it is also one of the most diverse, complex, and difficult to break into. Suppliers divide the country into distinct regions because alcohol laws vary tremendously at the state level across open market states, control states, and franchise states. Understanding these market eccentricities is mandatory for a successful launch. Selecting the right importer and distributor setup is fundamental. Maps vary across suppliers: key metropolitan markets—such as New York, California, Florida, Texas, and Chicago—are often managed as standalone regions due to their size and distinct demographics.
Chris Ladas (03:49)
Understanding the US three-tier system is fundamental to launching successfully. Tier 1 consists of distilleries, wineries, breweries, or importers. Tier 2 comprises distributors, and Tier 3 consists of retailers and on-premise venues. Crucially, each state maintains its own beverage laws and tax structures. State excise taxes and sales taxes vary widely, meaning the exact same product requires different pricing structures state-by-state rather than uniform national pricing. Navigating these regional state tax structures and pricing tools is precisely where Park Street provides vital operational support.
Chris Ladas (04:50)
The US on-premise sector consists of diverse venue categories: independent bars, sports bars, college venues, wine bars, restaurant groups, chain restaurants, hotels, sporting arenas, and airport venues. Examining three key metropolitan markets illustrates how drastically on-premise dynamics vary:
- Las Vegas: Dominated by massive casino-hotel properties with large budgets and intense price competition. Notably, 80% of the market is controlled by a single distributor. Securing placement requires a multi-layered process: gaining authorization from a central property buyer, getting product into the central warehouse, and then selling individually to each bar and restaurant within the resort.
- New York City: Comprises five distinct boroughs that function as separate sub-markets. High-end venues in Manhattan require completely different price points and product profiles than family-oriented suburban areas like Staten Island or seasonal luxury markets like the Hamptons.
- Miami: Functions as the Latin American gateway to North America, defined by unique consumer demographics, international tourism, and hotel-restaurant groups that require customized sales strategies.
Chris Ladas (07:40)
In the off-premise channel, retail dynamics vary just as widely. For example, almost every liquor store in New York City is independently owned due to state licensing laws, whereas markets like Texas feature massive retail chains carrying over 20,000 SKUs. A single retail strategy cannot be applied across both environments. Simultaneously, direct-to-consumer delivery services and app-based ordering platforms (such as UberEats) are expanding rapidly across the US. Approaching the United States as a single monolithic market is a fatal mistake—it must be treated with the same regional granularity as navigating 50 different countries in Europe. Selling a wine or spirit in Tennessee requires an entirely different approach than selling in New York, Florida, or California.
Chris Ladas (09:49)
Marketing strategies must also be tailored to individual markets. While digital geo-targeted advertising, social media integrations, and distributor co-op programs apply nationally, execution timing depends on local geography. For instance, launching a spring-focused cocktail strategy like a Margarita campaign in March is timely for northern states, but in Miami, the spring outdoor season is already well underway. Marketing budgets and seasonal promotion cycles must be customized to each market’s climate and consumer calendar.
Chris Ladas (10:44)
The single most critical factor for brand success is having dedicated local teams on the ground. Having field representatives inside the bars, liquor stores, and venues who maintain their finger on the pulse of the local market provides irreplaceable market feedback and execution. Investing in local boots on the ground is the most effective tool for driving sustained brand growth. Thank you for your time, and please let us know if you have any questions!
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