August 26, 2025 • 43 mins
This week, we're thrilled to bring you a great conversation with Revenue Beverage President Allan Carter. Host Jimmy Moreland and MHW's Brigid McCabe sat down with Allan to get his perspective on the back end of the three-tier system, how growing brands can better navigate today's challenges, and what strategies can help them capitalize on market opportunities.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
We're happy to welcome back MHWco-host extraordinaire Bridget
McCabe.
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Always good to have you on.
We're building up a streak.
I feel like we're going to havea nice run of Bridget and Jimmy
episodes, and that's alwaysexciting On this podcast.
We've got a really great guesttoday and we really dive into
some nice topics Generallyspeaking.
Broadly speaking, I'm feeling alittle bit retrospective right
now because we just crossed twoyears of doing the MHW Mark
(00:45):
podcast, which has me feelingnice.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Happy anniversary.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah, and it's fun to sort of look back and sort of
reflect on some of the topicsthat have really been a through
line, and I mentioned itfrequently that I think the
number one through line is forbrands anyway is authenticity as
far as telling your brand storyand sort of living your values
and so forth through marketing,and I just wanted to sort of
(01:11):
throw that out there in front ofyou and then ask your thoughts
Do you have anything topontificate on as we reflect on
two years of the podcast?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I think I agree with you.
I think the authenticity hasbeen a real through line.
I also believe that we've reallyprovided brands with a look
into the early starts of aprocess of how to launch a brand
, and I think our guest todayrings true to that concept
because we've touched on how toestablish brand values, how to
(01:42):
market your brand, how to getset up with an importer or
distributor, and the guest wehave on today is going to speak
a little bit about how to selland how to get pull through and
how to manage and finddistributors, how to ensure that
what you're doing is reallyworking and that you're having
long-term planning as a part ofyour sales goal posts, the
people behind the brands and theimporters and the distributors
(02:06):
that's definitely a point wetouch on today and building the
brand and the on-premise and whythat's important.
So I think there's been a lot ofreally great conversation over
the last two years about howbrands can have longevity in the
market, and that's really ourgoal here at MHW is to be
long-term partners to brands, tomake sure that it's not just a
year or two year that they're inmarket, but that we can really
(02:28):
celebrate them in 10, 20 yearsif it's an exit or maybe it's a
family-owned brand that theywant to keep in the family, but
just ensuring the success overtime.
And so I think the podcast hasbeen a really critical and key
way for us to educate and touchbase with so many people in the
industry.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And big thanks to the listeners who have been so
supportive, whether it's throughcomments on social media,
sharing it, liking it all thatkind of stuff really helps.
Yes, thank you, we appreciateit.
I, your friendly podcast host,appreciate it for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We do have a good conversation today, so we will
go ahead and jump right into it.
Our guest today has over 25years of executive experience in
sales and marketing, from beingpresident and general manager
of Domain Serene to vicepresident of sales and marketing
at Southern Glazers Wine andSpirits, to now as president of
Revenue Beverage.
Welcome to the show, alanCarter.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Thank you so much for having me.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's great to have you here.
Thanks for being here,especially you're on mountain
time or western time.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We're on western time , we are west coast in the fact
that you know we're.
Las Vegas is all beach, noocean.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, we appreciate you getting up early and
chatting with us.
Can you tell us just a littlebit more, I guess, about
yourself, your background andexperience, and specifically
about revenue beverage?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Certainly so.
You know, I started myprofessional life actually in
high tech, working in the 80sand 90s for technology companies
.
You know, if you remember thefamous dot-com bubble, I was
right in the middle of all thatwith a really great company.
And, long story short, duringthat process I was traveling the
world selling software and Idiscovered at a young age that
(04:08):
if you could pick a bottle ofwine that went with the food
everybody was eating, they'd buya lot of software from you
because they thought you weresome kind of magical wizard.
So I vocationally startedstudying food and wine pairing.
We sold the tech company.
I had to sign a big non-compete.
They paid me to not work for acouple of years.
So I literally went into thewine business and by went into
(04:28):
the wine business I mean workedat a local wine shop 10 hours a
week on the floor helping peoplewith their carts find a
Chardonnay they liked.
And I parlayed that into acareer in beverage, started with
a distributor in Baltimore,where I was born and raised.
In beverage I started with adistributor in Baltimore, where
I was born and raised, and thengot a phone call from a winery
(04:50):
in Oregon to Main Serene andmoved out there and ran that for
10 years.
Then I moved to Las Vegas andstarted with Southern Glazers,
the largest alcohol wholesalerin the country, and worked there
for the last 12.
So it's been, you know, I got acareer by accident, it seems
like, and I've sort of come fullcircle now with Revenue
Beverage and taking all of thoselife skills and all of those
(05:12):
professional skills I learnedand trying to put it into
something that actually you knowmight help people.
And that's really what we'reall about is trying to help
people and get paid too.
I'm certainly not a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's fantastic and you say by accident, but I think
it could be by design.
Maybe it was meant to be thisway.
So that's very exciting.
We're very happy at MHW to workwith Revenue Beverage, and one
thing that I found veryinteresting when I first met
Alan was he really brought meinside the mind of where the
distributor is these days.
So I want all of the listenersto really sort of hear this what
(05:50):
are distributors these daysactually feeling?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So it's interesting there's such a unique set of
challenges and the beverageindustry is.
You know it's an old, storiedindustry that goes all the way
back to prohibition and you knowthe three-tier system that you
see today and a lot of the waywholesale is set up are direct
results of trying to regulateafter prohibition ended, and so
that's why we have the systemswe have and it hasn't changed a
(06:15):
ton.
There's a little bit ofinnovation, things come, things
go, but what we're seeing,particularly in the past few
years, particularly since thepandemic, is a real shift in the
consumer mindset and a realshift in the supplier mindset.
So to sort of tie that togetherwholesalers, because they're
the key to the kingdom.
If you want to get into amarket, because of our federal
(06:36):
three-tier system you have tohave a wholesaler.
There's no other way to do it.
In some markets you can directsell, like California is a
market where you can sell directas a winery to a customer, but
largely that's not the case.
So if you want to be in amarket like Nevada or Colorado
or Arizona, you have to use awholesaler.
(06:57):
It's a federal thing, so theyhad all of the leverage and all
of the power.
It could be very selective.
Well, what's happening rightnow is three things Consumers
during pandemic got much moreeducated.
People who drank the same threethings all their life suddenly
found themselves at home and youknow drinking at home and so
they would experiment and trynew things and they started to
realize you know what I do, youknow I've always drank white
(07:19):
Zinfandel, but you know what Ido like Pinot Noir.
You know what I do because theydidn't want to drink the same
thing every day, locked in theirhouses.
So they went to the grocerystore the only thing open and
they bought all these differentthings and they said, wow, I
like gin.
Oh, my gosh, I really like, youknow, mezcal.
And so we came out the otherside of that with a more
educated consumer and with amore diverse consumer.
(07:40):
We also came out of that withthe consumer understanding the
economics of wine a little bit.
Why is my $19 bottle ofChardonnay $80 on a wine list?
They never really thought aboutthat before.
They're on vacation, they'redoing their thing, and now
they've got some.
You know economic knowledge aswell.
So it's put a lot of pressure onwholesalers and suppliers to
(08:01):
really rethink their margins.
You can't just drop 30 percentmargin on things anymore and
hope people will just go with it.
So that's one of the pressuresthe distributor has.
Their leverage has slipped alittle bit and we're seeing a
consolidation in the suppliermarket.
There's a big five companiesbuying up all the small, midsize
companies as they have economicstruggles or as winery owners
(08:22):
or distillery owners start toage out maybe they don't have
any relatives to take over.
They sell, they package to sell.
That led to a large group ofpeople investing in wineries and
distilleries with the extentpurpose of running it for a few
years, building it up andselling it.
You know that's a big thing.
So now suppliers ordistributors are dealing with
that.
(08:42):
And then the third thing thatthey're dealing with is you get
to a point where you get so bigthat maybe you can't be
everything to everyone, and someof the bigger wholesalers you
know there's a handful of reallybig ones in the country are
finding themselves now so bigwith 30,000 SKUs, with 3,000
suppliers, and every single oneof them has that same
(09:06):
expectation.
Well, in that scenario, what'sgoing to happen?
The bigger, the louder they'regoing to get the attention.
And so you're seeing small,medium, innovative, family-owned
.
You're starting to see them getsqueezed out a little bit.
It's not malicious.
The wholesalers aren't out totry to hurt them.
It's a bandwidth issue.
They don't have the time, theresources or the attention span
(09:29):
to be able to cultivate and growbrands.
So you're seeing largedistributors turn into literally
what they were set out to be.
We move a box from point A topoint B, but we can't build
brands and we can't havespecialists.
We've got to focus all thoseresources on what I like to call
lawyers, guns and money.
You know trucks paying yourbills, keeping inventory, making
sure your warehouse is managedcorrectly.
(09:50):
That's where the pressure is.
So what that's done, and I'm aglass half full guy that has
created a vacuum in the marketfor independent wholesalers, for
small.
You know entrepreneurial folkswho may have come from
distribution or come from thesupplier side to say, look,
here's the things that peoplelike me need.
It doesn't exist.
I'm going to create it.
(10:10):
Ten years ago, seven years ago,creating a small, mid-sized
distributor, maybe a 15 to 20million a year distributor
unheard of, because the big guyswould have steamrolled you,
they'd saw you coming and they'dhave thrown spike strips in the
road.
Now they're so busy keepingthose big five suppliers happy
and making sure that you knowthey're not paying too much for
(10:32):
fuel and shipping and that theydon't have time to fight in the
trenches.
And it's created a really greatmarket for smart people to
create niche distributors, andthat's one of the things that
we're taking advantage of.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
So if I'm a brand and I'm say I'm a newer brand sort
of trying to get started buildup my business, is my best
strategy to try to find one ofthese more niche independent
distributors, or is the dream toget on the big boy roster, if
you will Like?
What's the approach that brandsshould be taking?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Well, you know it's interesting because what brands
should be doing and what theythink they should be doing
largely are never the same thing.
I always equate it.
I was a professional musicianfor 30 years.
I ran a record label for 10years and I always amazed at the
similarities.
When you're a young band, thegoal is to get signed to a major
record label and theneverything's going to happen.
(11:24):
The doors are going to kickopen and rainbows and unicorns
are going to fall from the skyand you're going to be rich and
doing MTV Cribs.
Well, anybody in the businessknows that.
That's the first step of theladder, the first rung.
The hard work starts if the 1%that get there get that record
deal.
It's the exact same thing inbeverage Getting a wholesaler
(11:49):
literally just gets you on theplaying field.
It doesn't make you a starter.
It doesn't get you any furtherahead from a marketing or brand
retention standpoint.
It literally just gets you onthe playing field in a new
market.
And the mistake that brandsmake and I can't stress this
enough you can never, as a brand, expect a wholesaler to care
more about your product than youdo 100%.
(12:11):
If that is the case, you'redoomed right out of the gate.
You have to recognize awholesaler for what they are.
They are a federally mandatedorganization that literally
allows your customer to getproduct delivered to their
restaurant or to their retailshop.
That, at the core of it, is itAll the other stuff.
(12:32):
We build brands and we do it'sfluff.
There's some of that, but atthe end of the day, if an order
comes in and a box moves frompoint A to point B, they have
done their job and that's whatthey're there to do.
Young brands, new brands,innovative brands, brands in
transition need to have twothings.
One, they need to have astrategy for all right.
(12:52):
If I get into this market, howam I going to create pull
through?
Am I doing the right socials?
Am I doing the rightadvertising?
Am I in the right places thatwhen people come to a market or
when people go out to dinner,they're going to see this and go
?
Oh, I heard of that, I want tobuy that, because all
wholesalers care about is pullthrough, and that's not a bad
thing, it's just the reality.
The second thing is presence,particularly in places where
(13:15):
tourism drives the bus, placeslike Las Vegas, where I am, but
even in Miami and some otherplaces you have to have a
presence because what sells?
You know we're in the 21stcentury and anybody who's making
bad juice, bad liquor, bad wine, there's no excuse for it.
We have all the technology.
It's cheaper, it's better, it'sfaster and you can make with
(13:36):
pretty limited resources andpretty great product.
So let's assume the qualitativelevel is here.
There's some great things andsome good things, but there
shouldn't be any bad thingsanymore.
You're competing with peoplewho have a product as good as
yours or better.
The way that you get around thatit's relationships.
People buy from people theylike.
People buy from people thatthey know and that they trust.
(13:58):
Brands that go into a marketand then never visit it never
try to cultivate relationshipsthere.
They're the ones that are goingto struggle.
You've got to have feet on theground, shaking hands and
kissing babies, because at theend of the day, when the buyer
at a restaurant and it's aThursday and they're in a pinch
and their distributor just outof stock they're by the glass
Chardonnay that they sell twocases a night of they want a
(14:21):
problem solved.
You want to be that phone call.
You want to be the thing thatpops up.
Hey, alan, this happened.
Can you get me this $12Chardonnay today so that I don't
miss these pours tonight?
That's relationships and youcan't do that via email and
spreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Spot on.
I'm interested to hear abouthow you're helping brands solve
this.
What are the specialties ofyour consulting business and how
do you structure and set upyour retainers?
I've seen it a few differentways with field sales and sales
overlay companies, and I thinkyours is a really sharp one.
(14:57):
So I want to make sure that ourlistener has a chance to hear
about all of the capabilities.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So when I started Revenue Beverage and I started
it I was with Southern Glaciersfor 11 years, 12 years actually.
And you know, with all thetransition and everything going
on in the distribution world andI'm very upfront about it I was
part of a big layoff thataffected hundreds of people, and
(15:22):
you know.
So the first thing you do whenthat happens is you say, all
right, well, I'm going to lookfor another distributor, I'm
going to go to my comfort zoneand look for another distributor
job.
So I didn't really want to dothat.
So I said, well, maybe I can goback to the supplier side.
And so I was doing interviewsand I literally thought of the
company on the way back on aflight back from Seattle after a
job interview, after a greatjob interview where everything
went well, I'm sitting on theplane going.
(15:44):
I'm literally sending myselfback in time 15 years, and I
don't want to.
I don't necessarily want to dothat.
I don't want to necessarilyrebuild everything I've built.
I'd rather take what I know anduse it.
So I asked myself onefundamental question and I'm
leading up to answering yourquestion, bridget when was it
fun?
When was what I did fun?
And I'll tell you when it wasfun, when I was working with
(16:05):
small family brand that had alot of aspirations and some
really good product that justwanted people to try it.
That's what they wanted.
They wanted people.
We're proud of what we do andwe make this amazing thing and I
want to get it into people'sglasses and being a part of
building that and getting thataudience wider and wider and
turning into what turned into avery successful operation.
(16:27):
That was when it was fun andexciting and every day was
different and you could becreative and you had to color
outside the lines.
So I said how can I take allthat years of all the things
that I've done and all themistakes I've made, to be honest
, and distill that intosomething that would be valuable
to other companies and otherproducers like that?
And that's where this idea wasborn.
(16:47):
So it's built on two principles.
We understand the pain points.
If you are a distiller or awinery or a brewery, your love,
your passion is making thatproduct and creating it.
You want to put out the bestthing using the best ingredients
and try to create the bestproduct you can Selling it,
marketing it, figuring outdistribution and compliance and
(17:08):
all of the paperwork and thegovernment stuff.
That's stuff you didn't thinkabout when you planted those
vineyards, probably.
And now here you are.
Those are pain points and themore you get caught up in that,
the less you're doing the thingyou love.
Well, I've spent the last 20years doing the thing they don't
love.
So we provide two very valuablepainkillers.
If you will One, if you want tobe in a market and you think
(17:32):
it's the right fit, we can helpyou vet distributors there,
wholesalers there and find theright fit for you based on what
you want to do, your volumeexpectations, your product, your
pricing.
We will help you and we willwalk you from step one of
meeting these people, talking tothese people, pitching them all
the way through to signing thatpaperwork and getting those
(17:53):
orders on the ground.
That's phase one.
The second thing we do isperhaps you're with a wholesaler
in a market that you like andyou like the people, and it's
great.
But they have grown or they arefeeling a lot of pressure and
maybe they're not giving you theattention that you used to get
or that you feel you should get.
No fault of theirs.
The world is changing andyou've got a lot of people
pulling in a lot of directions.
When you're a big wholesaler, wecan go in and work with your
(18:15):
existing wholesaler acting assales overlays.
So we are your regional salesmanager, your state manager.
We will work with their salesreps.
We will go into the market, wewill do we drag a bag, we're not
air traffic control we will getout there and we will show the
wine and pour it, and show thespirits and pour them and talk
up and tell your story.
We try to, where we can, visitthe property before we sign a
(18:39):
contract so that we can get youknow, touch the dirt if you will
, and get their story.
So, in a nutshell, two thingsHelp you find distribution and
if we think it's not a fit oryour pricing is wrong.
We're also a great marketingresource because we'll give you
honest feedback.
We all know the distributorcan't, you know, isn't often
always honest with theirsuppliers because you've got to
(19:00):
tell them everything's goinggreat.
Um, customers definitely are.
Customers never had a productthey didn't like when they
supplier sitting in front ofthem.
We're that middle ground andyou're paying me to give you
honest feedback, honest research, and I'm I have no problem
telling you your baby's ugly,you know, and that's that's
really so.
Two things help you finddistribution If it's a fit, or
(19:21):
manage the distribution that youhave so that you don't have to
be out of the distillery or outof the winery and dragging a bag
in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I see a note here that Revenue Beverage
specializes in on-premise.
Why is that so important andwhy is that something that there
would be a note that youspecialize in on-premise?
Is that super important forbrands?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So it definitely is.
I mean the two worlds that welive in.
Well, there are three worlds.
There's direct-to-consumer,obviously off-premise grocery,
retail, wine shops, liquorstores and then the on-premise,
which is restaurants, wine bars,tasting rooms, those sort of
things.
So you have to have adiversified mix when you go to
market.
If you've ever seen some ofthese producers that are 100%
(20:05):
direct-to-consumer or 100% intodistribution and that's fine
when it's working but what thatdoes is it sets you up to be
very vulnerable in recessionsituations.
I always tell my clients, if youcan get to 50-50 direct to
consumer and distro, you'repretty much recession-proof
Because as market conditionschange, one will go up, one will
(20:27):
go down, but the numbers willstay pretty much the same If all
your eggs are in one basket.
Volatile market conditions willchange that.
We're seeing that with some ofthe tariff issues, right?
So if I'm an importer of aFrench wine, that's 100%
distribution.
All of a sudden the price of myproduct goes up.
I'm in trouble becauseconsumers don't want to pay $40
for something that they've beendrinking for, you know, 10 years
(20:48):
for $25.
But direct to consumer is alittle more lenient.
So you've got to have thatbalance.
Now when you talk aboutdistribution.
If you have a brand that is aretail-focused brand and there
are several if you've got areally cool $6 Chardonnay with a
Wallaby on the label and youwant to sell 10,000 cases of
that, retail is the way to go.
You make your pitch to Costco,to Total, whoever it is, and you
(21:11):
build your brand and yourmarketing around that and then
you do the back-end marketing tomake sure there's pull, that's
fantastic and it's a veryspecific model.
But the on-premise is wherebrands are built, in my opinion,
because in the on-premise worldyou're dealing with a buyer,
hopefully a very smart buyer,who's cultivating and curating a
(21:31):
list, be it a cocktail list, aback bar, a wine list and so
they want things that expresstheir personality, things that
make their program different.
I mean, I live in a marketwhere there's, you know, 10,000
bars on a four mile stretch ofroad, and so I've got all of
these people trying to be uniquein a sea of you know.
(21:52):
All right, well, we've gothere's our vodka, here's our gin
and here's our tequila.
They want that uniqueness.
So if you can build a story anda strategy that targets them
and makes them feel like byadding your product to that list
or to that program.
You're helping them expresstheir individuality.
That's going to breed loyalty.
(22:12):
Retail used to have a lot ofloyalty.
Brand loyalty was a thing.
I don't see it as much anymore.
Today's really great tequila istomorrow's mezcal is.
People change and shift, andyou know it's.
It's not like the good old dayswhere my father had one beer
that he drank and that was it,and that was the beer he drank
and he wasn't drinking any otherbeer because it's the beer he
drank in the war or whatever.
(22:32):
But that's gone now.
That is all gone.
People are looking for quality,they're looking for value,
they're looking for story, andso I think the on-premise is
where you grow it, because ifsomeone is buying your product
in a restaurant one, hopefullythey're not having a bad time.
They didn't go out to dinnerbecause they're having a bad
time.
Hopefully it enhances anexperience they're having, be it
an anniversary or a birthday ora first date or whatever it is,
(22:54):
and that's going to stick intheir memory way more than
something they grabbed off agrocery store shelf.
And you see it, all the time Igot this bottle, I got down on
my knee, I proposed, and then Itook the camera phone photo of
the bottle, because that's nowindelibly etched into my history
.
So on-premises is where brandsare built.
That's my biggest belief.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Absolutely, and I think I second that and I know
that from a memorable standpointas well, especially when you
see brands target fine dining orestablishments with a really
cool craft cocktail menu, thingslike that you're really trading
off of on their brand equity ina way and the restaurant's
brand equity.
(23:36):
So there's some really coolpartnerships that can be made in
the on-premise that just don'tresonate the same way sometimes
in the off-premise, that justdon't resonate the same way
sometimes in the off-premise.
But agree completely about the50-50 distribution split.
I think that makes a lot ofsense.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
The other thing it gives you in our day and age.
Now it gives you content.
I've got a producer who makes areally cool sparkling wine from
Sonoma.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Sounds great.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And we had one of our accounts here.
They liked it so much they putit into a cocktail, where
they've infused it into thiscocktail, that's cotton candy.
Oh yeah, it's an experience sothey have this beautiful
cocktail made with thissparkling that's got cotton
candy.
You're going to get so muchmileage out of that from a
social perspective, right,that's what's cool.
Nobody ever goes in and takes apicture of a bottle on a shelf
(24:25):
at an Albertsons and goeshashtag YOLO with their dark
lips and their peace sign with abottle on a shelf at a Total
Wine.
So so I think that it createsyour, your, your, your.
Only competitive edge as abrand anymore is one your
quality is going to be there,but two is two is story and
authenticity.
And how do you get that messageout?
(24:45):
You know there's no one in thatretail tour speaking to that.
For you, largely, it's theshelf and your label, but in a
restaurant, you've probably gota team of people talking to that
, from a sommelier to abartender, to a maitre d', to a
host, and that's why it's soimportant.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And we talked a little bit about markets.
But I'm interested to knowwhich markets you specialize in,
where I know you have someprimary markets, some tertiary
markets.
And then I'm curious to see howyou recommend that brands
imported by, say, mhw or othernational back office importers
can plug in directly with yoursales overlay program.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So when we started, I mean, obviously the tip of the
spear for us is Nevada and LasVegas, specifically because we
live here, we're based here,we've been working here forever
and a lot of people would behere.
I've never met a brand whodidn't want to be represented in
Las Vegas.
However, we try to stay towardsthe Southwest.
I mean I have clients that Iwork Arizona, for California,
(25:43):
new Mexico, colorado and we'realways looking to expand.
As we grow and as our offeringschange, we're expanding the
company.
We're very, very firm on notjust collecting brands.
I'm not creating a museum, I'mtrying to build a portfolio of
things I care about.
So we don't have 10 tequilasand we don't have 10 gins and we
don't have 10 CaliforniaCabernets.
(26:04):
We fill those spots and rightnow we've got a slot for 10
clients and at that, 10 clients.
We will then expand and starthiring salespeople specifically,
you know, for the markets wewant to be in.
I envision a day very soonwhere we will hire a full-time
person that does what we do, butin California, in Arizona.
As far as how we choose themarkets geographically, yes,
(26:26):
that makes sense because it'seasy for me to travel to, I mean
, I work San Diego, palm Springs.
You know that area.
I can drive, I have friendsthere, it costs me almost
nothing to do it, so it's easyfor me.
But as we get bigger, we willlook at other markets.
Now, with that said, when youtalk to us flyer, everybody says
I have the consultation whatmarkets do you want to be in?
Everybody says the same thingCalifornia, florida, new York,
(26:50):
texas, illinois.
Okay, so you just pick the topmarkets in the country where
every single brand on the planetwants to be, is trying to be,
is throwing all their money at,and brands with a lot more money
than you are spending a lot ofmoney to do this.
So I always tell them you wantto be in Texas.
Where does Texas's money live?
Texas's money lives in Oklahoma.
(27:10):
That's where you want to look.
You want to be in LA?
Okay, great.
But let's look at San Diego,let's look at Palm Springs,
let's look at the Valley.
You want to be in San Francisco?
Great.
But have you looked atSacramento?
Have you looked at Berkeley?
Places like that, where peoplelive, where they spend money,
where you can build a brand.
(27:31):
So we tailor everything towhatever the expectation of our
client is, but we do try to liketo keep it local.
I'm hesitant to run off and tryto tackle New York City at this
point.
I think that's very smart, butif people want a good base, well
, and the other side of it too.
If you can prove yourself in amarket like Las Vegas and start
generating some placements andsome sales, you're going to be
(27:55):
more attractive.
I always tell people grow yourbrand in a market people aren't
attacking, and then the bigdistributors in the other
markets will come after youAbsolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Well, in five or 10 years, when revenue beverage is
nationwide, we'll have you backon the podcast to talk about
that story.
All right, speaking offorecasting, looking ahead into
the future, we've talked abouthow things have changed and
where the market is now and someof the unique difficulties of
the present, including tariffsand so forth.
What are we sort of looking atin the next few years here as
(28:27):
far as challenges andopportunities in the space for
brands?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, it's interesting as an industry where
we're conditioned to panic alot of the time.
I always joke with my wineryclients you're so good at
long-term planning because youcan't just make wine.
You've got to plant a thing,cultivate a thing, grow a thing,
harvest a thing, make it, ageit.
I mean your entire whiskeyproducers, your entire job is
(28:55):
thinking long-term.
And yet when you see an articlein a newspaper that you know
the millennials aren't drinking,it's panic, our hair's on fire,
we're running around and we'retrying to shove, you know,
cannabis into stuff because wethink that's going to fix the
problem.
And I always tell people thatyou know, this business is
cyclical.
(29:15):
But people don't stopcelebrating and they don't stop
enjoying the things that theylike.
And they don't stop enjoyingthe things that they like.
And we can all relate to a timewhen maybe we were younger,
when maybe the thing we drinktoday isn't the thing we drank
then.
I mean what I drank in the 80sis way different than the things
I drink now.
And so when people ask me, howdo we solve the millennial
problem or the Gen Z problem, Imean I guess it's Gen Z now
(29:40):
Millennials are starting to ageout.
I always tell them the only wayyou're going to solve that
problem is to wait for them togrow up, because we all did it
and we were all there and youknow drinking Boone's Farm or
whatever it was, when we wereyounger.
You know that translated.
Because you do grow up and Isaid you know you want a new
generation of whiskey drinkers.
Wait till they've got mortgagesand second marriages.
They're going to be whiskeydrinkers, they're coming.
(30:00):
You just got to wait.
So I think that the best thingwe can do and no one can predict
the future I think we need toone stop commoditizing.
We've got to get away fromsaying this is the tequila and
this is the gin, and becausepeople don't respond to that and
they never will, if they did,there'd be one tennis shoe
(30:21):
manufacturer in.
They did, there'd be one tennisshoe manufacturer in the world
and there'd be one TV stationand there'd be one.
It's not that I mean, if youuse TV as a great example, we
had three TV stations my wholelife and now I've got 27
streaming services.
You know, and that is becausethe attention span of people,
they want new, they want to bestimulated.
So, number one I would say wecan't commoditize.
(30:44):
Stop trying to be Tito's orwhoever the it million case
brand is, and start being trueto what you do.
Number two be innovative.
That's always cool.
Everything that we see has comefrom some form of innovation.
Champagne, even though it'shundreds of years old that's an
innovation.
We need to have that mindsetthat we're going to create the
(31:06):
next big thing, and we need tobe prepared for 10 of those
things to not work.
For the one thing that does youcan't be afraid to take risks.
So I don't know what thebusiness is going to look like
in 10 years.
I can say that I think you'llsee a shift in how consumers buy
.
I think direct consumer isgoing to be a more powerful
thing.
I think that the Amazon ofbeverage is going to come one
(31:28):
day.
I don't know who's going tofigure out or how it's going to
work, but it's coming because ithas to.
It's the natural evolution.
The only thing preventing itright now is federal laws that
govern alcohol.
You know, the same laws thatgovern tobacco and firearms, if
we're being honest.
So with that in place, it'sdelaying it, but it won't stop
it.
I think the three-tier system Ithink needs to really take a
(31:49):
look at itself and adapt,because, as people rely less and
less on the three-tier system,the only thing we're going to
have left to compete on aswholesalers is service, and I
think we need to get back to aservice mindset as well, because
if you're consultative, ifyou're helping your customers,
if you're solving problems forthe people that are your
partners, you're the companythat's going to survive.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Those are some great points there and I think
definitely MHW co-signs thequality and service from a
wholesale perspective.
There's a lot of tricks andtechnology and things that you
know a lot of folks are comingout with now and, yes, it is
innovative and that's somethingthat we have certainly pivoted
to.
But we've always said it'sabout the people and it's about
(32:33):
who's servicing the brands.
It's about the people at thebrands.
It's really about building, youknow, a legacy at the end of
the day and achieving goals andsolving problems together and
working together.
So I think that's great.
And then, what you said at thefirst part of your point about
Gen Z you know the fingers sortof pointed at them and they're
not drinking, and you know yourpoint was they will get there.
(32:55):
It's interesting that you saythat because IWSR has been
coming out with a lot of studiesrecently that the alcohol use
in this demographic has actuallyrisen from 66% in 2023 to 73%
in 2025.
So now they're actuallybenchmarking slightly higher
than what prior generations were, and it's moderation in later
(33:16):
generations that arecontributing to it.
So I totally agree with you.
I think there's a lot of sortof assumptions there and as they
age into you know the BevValcworld.
I don't think any of thesecategories are really going away
and I think there could befluctuation in performance there
.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So you know, bad news sells, and so, in the same
token that that, we saw anarticle a bunch of years ago
where red wine cures heartdisease, and then everybody
started drinking red wine.
It was the greatest thing inthe world.
We had a movie sideways thatmade beer one of the most
popular wine on the planet.
We need to look at things likethat, but we can't react to them
(33:51):
in the longterm and right now,with everybody saying nobody's
drinking anymore.
You've got to read it, take itwith a grain of salt, but go
with your gut and stick to yourplan.
If you pivot too early based onan article in an online
newspaper, you're going to havetrouble.
Let's, let's.
If you want to targetmillennials or Gen Z, great, do
(34:12):
your research, spend your moneythere, find out what appeals to
them and make that product.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
You know I didn't mention it before, but I think
one of the trends of the futurewill be low-alk, not no-alk.
I know there's a big movementtowards no-alk and mocktails and
that's fine, that's wonderfultoo, right, but I think low-alk
the people you know, thescientists in whatever lab
somewhere in Sonoma that crackedthe code of how to make vodka
and gin taste like vodka and ginbut be 20% alcohol they're
(34:38):
going to have a bright futurebecause people do want to drink.
You know, they want to beresponsible and they want to be
healthy, but they don't want togive up the things they like
they really, really don't Right.
There's not a one of us whohasn't at some point you know at
three in the morning got up andsnuck a Twinkie.
We know it's bad.
Know, at three in the morning,got up and snuck a Twinkie.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
We know it's bad, but we don't give up the things we
like Absolutely For me it'spopcorn, and for areas like
Midcoast Maine, where I live,there's not a lot of Uber and
Lyft, and so having low-alcoholoptions when you're out is
really, really nice, because weall got to drive.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, and the other side of that coin, too, that
people don't think about.
If you are making a low-outcocktail if I can have the gin
and tonic I love or themargarita I love, but it's less
alcohol I am more prone to beresponsible number one.
But the other side of that, too, is, whereas I could have had
one cocktail, maybe I can havethree because I'm getting,
(35:31):
because the cocktail experienceis not about going out and
getting hammered anymore, it'ssocial.
I'm with my friends, I'm in acool place.
If it were just about gettingdrunk, every bar would be a dive
bar.
But no people are spendingmoney building these fancy
cocktail bars with themes andall this cool stuff.
It's about the experience.
And so how do you make money asan operator?
You prolong the experience.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I will not stand for disparaging my beloved dive bars
, Alan.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
No, I am a dive bar aficionado and I always joke I
could find a dive bar inAntarctica if I was given enough
time.
That's the places I go and Ihang out.
But I do know that for thepeople that people are trying to
target right now, they want anexperience.
They want to have that socialexperience that makes it cool to
be with their friends.
You know they don't want to sitin the corner with that old
(36:18):
fashioned, you know, and thecigarette with the four inch ash
, just talking about how I usedto be in a band.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That's a very small segment of the market.
I love it.
I do want to talk about our funLas Vegas connection that we
have here on the podcast.
Going all the way back toepisode 34 of this podcast, we
had Eddie Rivkin on.
Eddie I understand, you know,eddie.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
My good buddy Eddie.
Eddie is a true Las Vegasconnector.
We facilitate at MHW his backoffice services for both the
Miami Spirits Competition aswell as the Vegas Global Spirits
Competition both the MiamiSpirits Competition as well as
the Vegas Global SpiritsCompetition and we're really
happy to be introduced toRevenue Beverage through Eddie.
(37:04):
And I think one nice thing thatI just wanted to mention here
that any entrants into the LasVegas Global Spirits Award have
is, if you place in metal Ibelieve it's gold but it could
be platinum as well there is anopportunity to have some sales
overlay services to work throughMHW at a preferred rate as well
.
So there will be sort of ajoint program there in the
future and so definitelyrecommend that any brands
(37:26):
listening go ahead and enter.
Even if you're not currentlyimported or distributed in these
markets yet, mhw will go aheadand help you out and we'll jump
on your COLA waiver.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
So please and actually to add to that Bridget,
the overall winner for both LasVegas, miami, the brand that
wins the top prize, that's sortof that overall like a best in
show or whatever it's called.
They actually will get 90 daysof our services as part of their
prize Incredible so for any.
It's a great value add for abrand that wins that coveted
(37:58):
prize.
You know it's a good jumpstart,so we're really proud and
honored to be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
It's time for our fun question that we like to ask
all of our guests.
Now I'm going to ask you thisquestion twice, one for today
and one, because you mentionedit, for the 1980s and that is
what's your favorite cocktail orbeverage?
You mentioned having a drink inthe 80s.
I want to know what that was.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
So in the 80s there were two that made the rounds in
my youth Number one whateverthe cheapest beer you could get.
Now I'm from Baltimore, so thecheapest beer, the drink of
choice, was National BohemianNatty Bo to those in the know,
still around, still going strong.
I still drink it when I go homefor Orioles games every year.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
That was my college drink.
I'm a terp.
I don't know if you know that,Alan.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Oh, there you go.
So I'm a Towson Tiger Bridget,there you go.
So I'm a Towson Tiger Bridgetthere you go, but you know it
was usually the cheapest.
However, you know if we couldpool our money and you know
anything that was $6 a case and,for the young people that are
experiencing this podcast, therewas a time when you could get
24 cans of beer for $6.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
There was.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
That was the time, but the liquor store was uphill
both ways in the snow and wedidn't have shoes.
But the other thing was we madethis really fun thing called
Rocket Fuel, which is where youput half a glass of vodka and we
didn't care what vodka, becausewe were not brand loyalists, we
weren't call branding, we weregoing I'm going to make this
really terrible drink.
I need Tito's.
(39:35):
No, you have vodka, you put afloat on it, you floated half
orange juice, then the float ofvodka on top and you drank it
all as a shot out of a 16-ounceglass.
It was called a rocket fuel andit was a very, very bad
decision to make it's like ascrewdriver with more work, it
seems.
(39:57):
It was like a screwdriver.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
But if it were shot out of a fire hose.
And now, today, we've all grown, we've all matured, our palates
have developed, alan, what arewe sipping on today?
Speaker 3 (40:08):
So there's twofold.
So I was a wine guy my wholelife.
I sold wine.
I sold fine wine.
I worked at wine and it's thetrue adage If you ever want to
stretch out and try new things,take the thing you love and do
it for a living.
So with wine, because when yousell wine, particularly fine
wine, in your circle, yourfriends, you become the wine guy
.
And people will call you atmidnight and go hey, I want to
(40:29):
impress this guy or this girl,what do I serve with X?
And you become the wine guy.
So when I go out now with all ofthe knowledge I've amassed, if
it's wine I don't order wine formyself anymore.
I always find the sommelier orwhoever is taking care of us
that night and I say what onyour list?
I want to spend this much moneyand never be ashamed to say I'm
(40:51):
going to spend a hundred bucksor I'm going to spend 50 bucks
or there's no shame in it.
People get it.
Nobody's going to look down onyou.
Go to a restaurant and sit downand find that expert because
they cultivated that list andthey care about it and it's, you
know, a little nursery full oftheir children and say what do
you like?
You know, what is it that yourecommend?
You saw what I ordered.
What do you get?
And they will get excited andthey will help you and you will
(41:12):
get something cool and new andthat's where you'll learn.
The other side of that, too, iswhen you do that you're giving
a brand that may need the chancea chance Because most of the
time they're going to recommendsomething cool that they want to
impress you, they want to showyou something.
Bet you haven't had this.
That's what it is.
So that's wine in the wineworld.
(41:33):
So I don't have a go-to.
I don't have a go-to.
I don't have a sit down andpick up a bottle of wine.
I like to rely on other peoplebecause that's how I learned.
I love that.
Now, with spirits verydifferent animal.
I'm a big fan of the craftcocktail craze.
I think it's awesome.
There's so much creativity.
It's part alchemy and partscience.
So I go to a lot of the coollittle you know cocktail bars
that are popping up in Vegas.
(41:54):
I lean towards gin.
If you can do interesting stuffwith gin, you've got me.
But I also have a deep, deeplove for mezcal in a cocktail,
because mezcal adds apersonality to a cocktail,
that's you know.
It's really unique and fun.
So gin and mezcal in cocktailsthese days, and then whatever
wine my sommelier isrecommending.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I want to say thank you so much, alan Carter, for
joining us.
You've been a delight to haveand you're a true professional
and we'd love to have you backon the podcast again.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Anytime, I appreciate it.
This was really, really fun andI look forward to doing it
again.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
And thank you listeners, for joining us on the
MHW Mark podcast.
If you want to follow up morewith Revenue Beverage, the
website is revenuebeveragecom.
We will put links to that inthe show notes.
Thanks again to Bridget McCabefor joining me in hosting.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thanks as always, jimmy.
Thanks listeners, we appreciateyou.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
This podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen, andhere's to another two years.
We'll see you in two weeks,cheers.
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
We're happy to welcome back MHWco-host extraordinaire Bridget
McCabe.
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Always good to have you on.
We're building up a streak.
I feel like we're going to havea nice run of Bridget and Jimmy
episodes, and that's alwaysexciting On this podcast.
We've got a really great guesttoday and we really dive into
some nice topics Generallyspeaking.
Broadly speaking, I'm feeling alittle bit retrospective right
now because we just crossed twoyears of doing the MHW Mark
(00:45):
podcast, which has me feelingnice.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Happy anniversary.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah, and it's fun to sort of look back and sort of
reflect on some of the topicsthat have really been a through
line, and I mentioned itfrequently that I think the
number one through line is forbrands anyway is authenticity as
far as telling your brand storyand sort of living your values
and so forth through marketing,and I just wanted to sort of
(01:11):
throw that out there in front ofyou and then ask your thoughts
Do you have anything topontificate on as we reflect on
two years of the podcast?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I think I agree with you.
I think the authenticity hasbeen a real through line.
I also believe that we've reallyprovided brands with a look
into the early starts of aprocess of how to launch a brand
, and I think our guest todayrings true to that concept
because we've touched on how toestablish brand values, how to
(01:42):
market your brand, how to getset up with an importer or
distributor, and the guest wehave on today is going to speak
a little bit about how to selland how to get pull through and
how to manage and finddistributors, how to ensure that
what you're doing is reallyworking and that you're having
long-term planning as a part ofyour sales goal posts, the
people behind the brands and theimporters and the distributors
(02:06):
that's definitely a point wetouch on today and building the
brand and the on-premise and whythat's important.
So I think there's been a lot ofreally great conversation over
the last two years about howbrands can have longevity in the
market, and that's really ourgoal here at MHW is to be
long-term partners to brands, tomake sure that it's not just a
year or two year that they're inmarket, but that we can really
(02:28):
celebrate them in 10, 20 yearsif it's an exit or maybe it's a
family-owned brand that theywant to keep in the family, but
just ensuring the success overtime.
And so I think the podcast hasbeen a really critical and key
way for us to educate and touchbase with so many people in the
industry.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And big thanks to the listeners who have been so
supportive, whether it's throughcomments on social media,
sharing it, liking it all thatkind of stuff really helps.
Yes, thank you, we appreciateit.
I, your friendly podcast host,appreciate it for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
We do have a good conversation today, so we will
go ahead and jump right into it.
Our guest today has over 25years of executive experience in
sales and marketing, from beingpresident and general manager
of Domain Serene to vicepresident of sales and marketing
at Southern Glazers Wine andSpirits, to now as president of
Revenue Beverage.
Welcome to the show, alanCarter.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Thank you so much for having me.
This is great.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's great to have you here.
Thanks for being here,especially you're on mountain
time or western time.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We're on western time , we are west coast in the fact
that you know we're.
Las Vegas is all beach, noocean.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, we appreciate you getting up early and
chatting with us.
Can you tell us just a littlebit more, I guess, about
yourself, your background andexperience, and specifically
about revenue beverage?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Certainly so.
You know, I started myprofessional life actually in
high tech, working in the 80sand 90s for technology companies
.
You know, if you remember thefamous dot-com bubble, I was
right in the middle of all thatwith a really great company.
And, long story short, duringthat process I was traveling the
world selling software and Idiscovered at a young age that
(04:08):
if you could pick a bottle ofwine that went with the food
everybody was eating, they'd buya lot of software from you
because they thought you weresome kind of magical wizard.
So I vocationally startedstudying food and wine pairing.
We sold the tech company.
I had to sign a big non-compete.
They paid me to not work for acouple of years.
So I literally went into thewine business and by went into
(04:28):
the wine business I mean workedat a local wine shop 10 hours a
week on the floor helping peoplewith their carts find a
Chardonnay they liked.
And I parlayed that into acareer in beverage, started with
a distributor in Baltimore,where I was born and raised.
In beverage I started with adistributor in Baltimore, where
I was born and raised, and thengot a phone call from a winery
(04:50):
in Oregon to Main Serene andmoved out there and ran that for
10 years.
Then I moved to Las Vegas andstarted with Southern Glazers,
the largest alcohol wholesalerin the country, and worked there
for the last 12.
So it's been, you know, I got acareer by accident, it seems
like, and I've sort of come fullcircle now with Revenue
Beverage and taking all of thoselife skills and all of those
(05:12):
professional skills I learnedand trying to put it into
something that actually you knowmight help people.
And that's really what we'reall about is trying to help
people and get paid too.
I'm certainly not a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
That's fantastic and you say by accident, but I think
it could be by design.
Maybe it was meant to be thisway.
So that's very exciting.
We're very happy at MHW to workwith Revenue Beverage, and one
thing that I found veryinteresting when I first met
Alan was he really brought meinside the mind of where the
distributor is these days.
So I want all of the listenersto really sort of hear this what
(05:50):
are distributors these daysactually feeling?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So it's interesting there's such a unique set of
challenges and the beverageindustry is.
You know it's an old, storiedindustry that goes all the way
back to prohibition and you knowthe three-tier system that you
see today and a lot of the waywholesale is set up are direct
results of trying to regulateafter prohibition ended, and so
that's why we have the systemswe have and it hasn't changed a
(06:15):
ton.
There's a little bit ofinnovation, things come, things
go, but what we're seeing,particularly in the past few
years, particularly since thepandemic, is a real shift in the
consumer mindset and a realshift in the supplier mindset.
So to sort of tie that togetherwholesalers, because they're
the key to the kingdom.
If you want to get into amarket, because of our federal
(06:36):
three-tier system you have tohave a wholesaler.
There's no other way to do it.
In some markets you can directsell, like California is a
market where you can sell directas a winery to a customer, but
largely that's not the case.
So if you want to be in amarket like Nevada or Colorado
or Arizona, you have to use awholesaler.
(06:57):
It's a federal thing, so theyhad all of the leverage and all
of the power.
It could be very selective.
Well, what's happening rightnow is three things Consumers
during pandemic got much moreeducated.
People who drank the same threethings all their life suddenly
found themselves at home and youknow drinking at home and so
they would experiment and trynew things and they started to
realize you know what I do, youknow I've always drank white
(07:19):
Zinfandel, but you know what Ido like Pinot Noir.
You know what I do because theydidn't want to drink the same
thing every day, locked in theirhouses.
So they went to the grocerystore the only thing open and
they bought all these differentthings and they said, wow, I
like gin.
Oh, my gosh, I really like, youknow, mezcal.
And so we came out the otherside of that with a more
educated consumer and with amore diverse consumer.
(07:40):
We also came out of that withthe consumer understanding the
economics of wine a little bit.
Why is my $19 bottle ofChardonnay $80 on a wine list?
They never really thought aboutthat before.
They're on vacation, they'redoing their thing, and now
they've got some.
You know economic knowledge aswell.
So it's put a lot of pressure onwholesalers and suppliers to
(08:01):
really rethink their margins.
You can't just drop 30 percentmargin on things anymore and
hope people will just go with it.
So that's one of the pressuresthe distributor has.
Their leverage has slipped alittle bit and we're seeing a
consolidation in the suppliermarket.
There's a big five companiesbuying up all the small, midsize
companies as they have economicstruggles or as winery owners
(08:22):
or distillery owners start toage out maybe they don't have
any relatives to take over.
They sell, they package to sell.
That led to a large group ofpeople investing in wineries and
distilleries with the extentpurpose of running it for a few
years, building it up andselling it.
You know that's a big thing.
So now suppliers ordistributors are dealing with
that.
(08:42):
And then the third thing thatthey're dealing with is you get
to a point where you get so bigthat maybe you can't be
everything to everyone, and someof the bigger wholesalers you
know there's a handful of reallybig ones in the country are
finding themselves now so bigwith 30,000 SKUs, with 3,000
suppliers, and every single oneof them has that same
(09:06):
expectation.
Well, in that scenario, what'sgoing to happen?
The bigger, the louder they'regoing to get the attention.
And so you're seeing small,medium, innovative, family-owned
.
You're starting to see them getsqueezed out a little bit.
It's not malicious.
The wholesalers aren't out totry to hurt them.
It's a bandwidth issue.
They don't have the time, theresources or the attention span
(09:29):
to be able to cultivate and growbrands.
So you're seeing largedistributors turn into literally
what they were set out to be.
We move a box from point A topoint B, but we can't build
brands and we can't havespecialists.
We've got to focus all thoseresources on what I like to call
lawyers, guns and money.
You know trucks paying yourbills, keeping inventory, making
sure your warehouse is managedcorrectly.
(09:50):
That's where the pressure is.
So what that's done, and I'm aglass half full guy that has
created a vacuum in the marketfor independent wholesalers, for
small.
You know entrepreneurial folkswho may have come from
distribution or come from thesupplier side to say, look,
here's the things that peoplelike me need.
It doesn't exist.
I'm going to create it.
(10:10):
Ten years ago, seven years ago,creating a small, mid-sized
distributor, maybe a 15 to 20million a year distributor
unheard of, because the big guyswould have steamrolled you,
they'd saw you coming and they'dhave thrown spike strips in the
road.
Now they're so busy keepingthose big five suppliers happy
and making sure that you knowthey're not paying too much for
(10:32):
fuel and shipping and that theydon't have time to fight in the
trenches.
And it's created a really greatmarket for smart people to
create niche distributors, andthat's one of the things that
we're taking advantage of.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
So if I'm a brand and I'm say I'm a newer brand sort
of trying to get started buildup my business, is my best
strategy to try to find one ofthese more niche independent
distributors, or is the dream toget on the big boy roster, if
you will Like?
What's the approach that brandsshould be taking?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Well, you know it's interesting because what brands
should be doing and what theythink they should be doing
largely are never the same thing.
I always equate it.
I was a professional musicianfor 30 years.
I ran a record label for 10years and I always amazed at the
similarities.
When you're a young band, thegoal is to get signed to a major
record label and theneverything's going to happen.
(11:24):
The doors are going to kickopen and rainbows and unicorns
are going to fall from the skyand you're going to be rich and
doing MTV Cribs.
Well, anybody in the businessknows that.
That's the first step of theladder, the first rung.
The hard work starts if the 1%that get there get that record
deal.
It's the exact same thing inbeverage Getting a wholesaler
(11:49):
literally just gets you on theplaying field.
It doesn't make you a starter.
It doesn't get you any furtherahead from a marketing or brand
retention standpoint.
It literally just gets you onthe playing field in a new
market.
And the mistake that brandsmake and I can't stress this
enough you can never, as a brand, expect a wholesaler to care
more about your product than youdo 100%.
(12:11):
If that is the case, you'redoomed right out of the gate.
You have to recognize awholesaler for what they are.
They are a federally mandatedorganization that literally
allows your customer to getproduct delivered to their
restaurant or to their retailshop.
That, at the core of it, is itAll the other stuff.
(12:32):
We build brands and we do it'sfluff.
There's some of that, but atthe end of the day, if an order
comes in and a box moves frompoint A to point B, they have
done their job and that's whatthey're there to do.
Young brands, new brands,innovative brands, brands in
transition need to have twothings.
One, they need to have astrategy for all right.
(12:52):
If I get into this market, howam I going to create pull
through?
Am I doing the right socials?
Am I doing the rightadvertising?
Am I in the right places thatwhen people come to a market or
when people go out to dinner,they're going to see this and go
?
Oh, I heard of that, I want tobuy that, because all
wholesalers care about is pullthrough, and that's not a bad
thing, it's just the reality.
The second thing is presence,particularly in places where
(13:15):
tourism drives the bus, placeslike Las Vegas, where I am, but
even in Miami and some otherplaces you have to have a
presence because what sells?
You know we're in the 21stcentury and anybody who's making
bad juice, bad liquor, bad wine, there's no excuse for it.
We have all the technology.
It's cheaper, it's better, it'sfaster and you can make with
(13:36):
pretty limited resources andpretty great product.
So let's assume the qualitativelevel is here.
There's some great things andsome good things, but there
shouldn't be any bad thingsanymore.
You're competing with peoplewho have a product as good as
yours or better.
The way that you get around thatit's relationships.
People buy from people theylike.
People buy from people thatthey know and that they trust.
(13:58):
Brands that go into a marketand then never visit it never
try to cultivate relationshipsthere.
They're the ones that are goingto struggle.
You've got to have feet on theground, shaking hands and
kissing babies, because at theend of the day, when the buyer
at a restaurant and it's aThursday and they're in a pinch
and their distributor just outof stock they're by the glass
Chardonnay that they sell twocases a night of they want a
(14:21):
problem solved.
You want to be that phone call.
You want to be the thing thatpops up.
Hey, alan, this happened.
Can you get me this $12Chardonnay today so that I don't
miss these pours tonight?
That's relationships and youcan't do that via email and
spreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Spot on.
I'm interested to hear abouthow you're helping brands solve
this.
What are the specialties ofyour consulting business and how
do you structure and set upyour retainers?
I've seen it a few differentways with field sales and sales
overlay companies, and I thinkyours is a really sharp one.
(14:57):
So I want to make sure that ourlistener has a chance to hear
about all of the capabilities.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
So when I started Revenue Beverage and I started
it I was with Southern Glaciersfor 11 years, 12 years actually.
And you know, with all thetransition and everything going
on in the distribution world andI'm very upfront about it I was
part of a big layoff thataffected hundreds of people, and
(15:22):
you know.
So the first thing you do whenthat happens is you say, all
right, well, I'm going to lookfor another distributor, I'm
going to go to my comfort zoneand look for another distributor
job.
So I didn't really want to dothat.
So I said, well, maybe I can goback to the supplier side.
And so I was doing interviewsand I literally thought of the
company on the way back on aflight back from Seattle after a
job interview, after a greatjob interview where everything
went well, I'm sitting on theplane going.
(15:44):
I'm literally sending myselfback in time 15 years, and I
don't want to.
I don't necessarily want to dothat.
I don't want to necessarilyrebuild everything I've built.
I'd rather take what I know anduse it.
So I asked myself onefundamental question and I'm
leading up to answering yourquestion, bridget when was it
fun?
When was what I did fun?
And I'll tell you when it wasfun, when I was working with
(16:05):
small family brand that had alot of aspirations and some
really good product that justwanted people to try it.
That's what they wanted.
They wanted people.
We're proud of what we do andwe make this amazing thing and I
want to get it into people'sglasses and being a part of
building that and getting thataudience wider and wider and
turning into what turned into avery successful operation.
(16:27):
That was when it was fun andexciting and every day was
different and you could becreative and you had to color
outside the lines.
So I said how can I take allthat years of all the things
that I've done and all themistakes I've made, to be honest
, and distill that intosomething that would be valuable
to other companies and otherproducers like that?
And that's where this idea wasborn.
(16:47):
So it's built on two principles.
We understand the pain points.
If you are a distiller or awinery or a brewery, your love,
your passion is making thatproduct and creating it.
You want to put out the bestthing using the best ingredients
and try to create the bestproduct you can Selling it,
marketing it, figuring outdistribution and compliance and
(17:08):
all of the paperwork and thegovernment stuff.
That's stuff you didn't thinkabout when you planted those
vineyards, probably.
And now here you are.
Those are pain points and themore you get caught up in that,
the less you're doing the thingyou love.
Well, I've spent the last 20years doing the thing they don't
love.
So we provide two very valuablepainkillers.
If you will One, if you want tobe in a market and you think
(17:32):
it's the right fit, we can helpyou vet distributors there,
wholesalers there and find theright fit for you based on what
you want to do, your volumeexpectations, your product, your
pricing.
We will help you and we willwalk you from step one of
meeting these people, talking tothese people, pitching them all
the way through to signing thatpaperwork and getting those
(17:53):
orders on the ground.
That's phase one.
The second thing we do isperhaps you're with a wholesaler
in a market that you like andyou like the people, and it's
great.
But they have grown or they arefeeling a lot of pressure and
maybe they're not giving you theattention that you used to get
or that you feel you should get.
No fault of theirs.
The world is changing andyou've got a lot of people
pulling in a lot of directions.
When you're a big wholesaler, wecan go in and work with your
(18:15):
existing wholesaler acting assales overlays.
So we are your regional salesmanager, your state manager.
We will work with their salesreps.
We will go into the market, wewill do we drag a bag, we're not
air traffic control we will getout there and we will show the
wine and pour it, and show thespirits and pour them and talk
up and tell your story.
We try to, where we can, visitthe property before we sign a
(18:39):
contract so that we can get youknow, touch the dirt if you will
, and get their story.
So, in a nutshell, two thingsHelp you find distribution and
if we think it's not a fit oryour pricing is wrong.
We're also a great marketingresource because we'll give you
honest feedback.
We all know the distributorcan't, you know, isn't often
always honest with theirsuppliers because you've got to
(19:00):
tell them everything's goinggreat.
Um, customers definitely are.
Customers never had a productthey didn't like when they
supplier sitting in front ofthem.
We're that middle ground andyou're paying me to give you
honest feedback, honest research, and I'm I have no problem
telling you your baby's ugly,you know, and that's that's
really so.
Two things help you finddistribution If it's a fit, or
(19:21):
manage the distribution that youhave so that you don't have to
be out of the distillery or outof the winery and dragging a bag
in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I see a note here that Revenue Beverage
specializes in on-premise.
Why is that so important andwhy is that something that there
would be a note that youspecialize in on-premise?
Is that super important forbrands?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So it definitely is.
I mean the two worlds that welive in.
Well, there are three worlds.
There's direct-to-consumer,obviously off-premise grocery,
retail, wine shops, liquorstores and then the on-premise,
which is restaurants, wine bars,tasting rooms, those sort of
things.
So you have to have adiversified mix when you go to
market.
If you've ever seen some ofthese producers that are 100%
(20:05):
direct-to-consumer or 100% intodistribution and that's fine
when it's working but what thatdoes is it sets you up to be
very vulnerable in recessionsituations.
I always tell my clients, if youcan get to 50-50 direct to
consumer and distro, you'repretty much recession-proof
Because as market conditionschange, one will go up, one will
(20:27):
go down, but the numbers willstay pretty much the same If all
your eggs are in one basket.
Volatile market conditions willchange that.
We're seeing that with some ofthe tariff issues, right?
So if I'm an importer of aFrench wine, that's 100%
distribution.
All of a sudden the price of myproduct goes up.
I'm in trouble becauseconsumers don't want to pay $40
for something that they've beendrinking for, you know, 10 years
(20:48):
for $25.
But direct to consumer is alittle more lenient.
So you've got to have thatbalance.
Now when you talk aboutdistribution.
If you have a brand that is aretail-focused brand and there
are several if you've got areally cool $6 Chardonnay with a
Wallaby on the label and youwant to sell 10,000 cases of
that, retail is the way to go.
You make your pitch to Costco,to Total, whoever it is, and you
(21:11):
build your brand and yourmarketing around that and then
you do the back-end marketing tomake sure there's pull, that's
fantastic and it's a veryspecific model.
But the on-premise is wherebrands are built, in my opinion,
because in the on-premise worldyou're dealing with a buyer,
hopefully a very smart buyer,who's cultivating and curating a
(21:31):
list, be it a cocktail list, aback bar, a wine list and so
they want things that expresstheir personality, things that
make their program different.
I mean, I live in a marketwhere there's, you know, 10,000
bars on a four mile stretch ofroad, and so I've got all of
these people trying to be uniquein a sea of you know.
(21:52):
All right, well, we've gothere's our vodka, here's our gin
and here's our tequila.
They want that uniqueness.
So if you can build a story anda strategy that targets them
and makes them feel like byadding your product to that list
or to that program.
You're helping them expresstheir individuality.
That's going to breed loyalty.
(22:12):
Retail used to have a lot ofloyalty.
Brand loyalty was a thing.
I don't see it as much anymore.
Today's really great tequila istomorrow's mezcal is.
People change and shift, andyou know it's.
It's not like the good old dayswhere my father had one beer
that he drank and that was it,and that was the beer he drank
and he wasn't drinking any otherbeer because it's the beer he
drank in the war or whatever.
(22:32):
But that's gone now.
That is all gone.
People are looking for quality,they're looking for value,
they're looking for story, andso I think the on-premise is
where you grow it, because ifsomeone is buying your product
in a restaurant one, hopefullythey're not having a bad time.
They didn't go out to dinnerbecause they're having a bad
time.
Hopefully it enhances anexperience they're having, be it
an anniversary or a birthday ora first date or whatever it is,
(22:54):
and that's going to stick intheir memory way more than
something they grabbed off agrocery store shelf.
And you see it, all the time Igot this bottle, I got down on
my knee, I proposed, and then Itook the camera phone photo of
the bottle, because that's nowindelibly etched into my history
.
So on-premises is where brandsare built.
That's my biggest belief.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Absolutely, and I think I second that and I know
that from a memorable standpointas well, especially when you
see brands target fine dining orestablishments with a really
cool craft cocktail menu, thingslike that you're really trading
off of on their brand equity ina way and the restaurant's
brand equity.
(23:36):
So there's some really coolpartnerships that can be made in
the on-premise that just don'tresonate the same way sometimes
in the off-premise, that justdon't resonate the same way
sometimes in the off-premise.
But agree completely about the50-50 distribution split.
I think that makes a lot ofsense.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
The other thing it gives you in our day and age.
Now it gives you content.
I've got a producer who makes areally cool sparkling wine from
Sonoma.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Sounds great.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And we had one of our accounts here.
They liked it so much they putit into a cocktail, where
they've infused it into thiscocktail, that's cotton candy.
Oh yeah, it's an experience sothey have this beautiful
cocktail made with thissparkling that's got cotton
candy.
You're going to get so muchmileage out of that from a
social perspective, right,that's what's cool.
Nobody ever goes in and takes apicture of a bottle on a shelf
(24:25):
at an Albertsons and goeshashtag YOLO with their dark
lips and their peace sign with abottle on a shelf at a Total
Wine.
So so I think that it createsyour, your, your, your.
Only competitive edge as abrand anymore is one your
quality is going to be there,but two is two is story and
authenticity.
And how do you get that messageout?
(24:45):
You know there's no one in thatretail tour speaking to that.
For you, largely, it's theshelf and your label, but in a
restaurant, you've probably gota team of people talking to that
, from a sommelier to abartender, to a maitre d', to a
host, and that's why it's soimportant.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And we talked a little bit about markets.
But I'm interested to knowwhich markets you specialize in,
where I know you have someprimary markets, some tertiary
markets.
And then I'm curious to see howyou recommend that brands
imported by, say, mhw or othernational back office importers
can plug in directly with yoursales overlay program.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
So when we started, I mean, obviously the tip of the
spear for us is Nevada and LasVegas, specifically because we
live here, we're based here,we've been working here forever
and a lot of people would behere.
I've never met a brand whodidn't want to be represented in
Las Vegas.
However, we try to stay towardsthe Southwest.
I mean I have clients that Iwork Arizona, for California,
(25:43):
new Mexico, colorado and we'realways looking to expand.
As we grow and as our offeringschange, we're expanding the
company.
We're very, very firm on notjust collecting brands.
I'm not creating a museum, I'mtrying to build a portfolio of
things I care about.
So we don't have 10 tequilasand we don't have 10 gins and we
don't have 10 CaliforniaCabernets.
(26:04):
We fill those spots and rightnow we've got a slot for 10
clients and at that, 10 clients.
We will then expand and starthiring salespeople specifically,
you know, for the markets wewant to be in.
I envision a day very soonwhere we will hire a full-time
person that does what we do, butin California, in Arizona.
As far as how we choose themarkets geographically, yes,
(26:26):
that makes sense because it'seasy for me to travel to, I mean
, I work San Diego, palm Springs.
You know that area.
I can drive, I have friendsthere, it costs me almost
nothing to do it, so it's easyfor me.
But as we get bigger, we willlook at other markets.
Now, with that said, when youtalk to us flyer, everybody says
I have the consultation whatmarkets do you want to be in?
Everybody says the same thingCalifornia, florida, new York,
(26:50):
texas, illinois.
Okay, so you just pick the topmarkets in the country where
every single brand on the planetwants to be, is trying to be,
is throwing all their money at,and brands with a lot more money
than you are spending a lot ofmoney to do this.
So I always tell them you wantto be in Texas.
Where does Texas's money live?
Texas's money lives in Oklahoma.
(27:10):
That's where you want to look.
You want to be in LA?
Okay, great.
But let's look at San Diego,let's look at Palm Springs,
let's look at the Valley.
You want to be in San Francisco?
Great.
But have you looked atSacramento?
Have you looked at Berkeley?
Places like that, where peoplelive, where they spend money,
where you can build a brand.
(27:31):
So we tailor everything towhatever the expectation of our
client is, but we do try to liketo keep it local.
I'm hesitant to run off and tryto tackle New York City at this
point.
I think that's very smart, butif people want a good base, well
, and the other side of it too.
If you can prove yourself in amarket like Las Vegas and start
generating some placements andsome sales, you're going to be
(27:55):
more attractive.
I always tell people grow yourbrand in a market people aren't
attacking, and then the bigdistributors in the other
markets will come after youAbsolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Well, in five or 10 years, when revenue beverage is
nationwide, we'll have you backon the podcast to talk about
that story.
All right, speaking offorecasting, looking ahead into
the future, we've talked abouthow things have changed and
where the market is now and someof the unique difficulties of
the present, including tariffsand so forth.
What are we sort of looking atin the next few years here as
(28:27):
far as challenges andopportunities in the space for
brands?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
You know, it's interesting as an industry where
we're conditioned to panic alot of the time.
I always joke with my wineryclients you're so good at
long-term planning because youcan't just make wine.
You've got to plant a thing,cultivate a thing, grow a thing,
harvest a thing, make it, ageit.
I mean your entire whiskeyproducers, your entire job is
(28:55):
thinking long-term.
And yet when you see an articlein a newspaper that you know
the millennials aren't drinking,it's panic, our hair's on fire,
we're running around and we'retrying to shove, you know,
cannabis into stuff because wethink that's going to fix the
problem.
And I always tell people thatyou know, this business is
cyclical.
(29:15):
But people don't stopcelebrating and they don't stop
enjoying the things that theylike.
And they don't stop enjoyingthe things that they like.
And we can all relate to a timewhen maybe we were younger,
when maybe the thing we drinktoday isn't the thing we drank
then.
I mean what I drank in the 80sis way different than the things
I drink now.
And so when people ask me, howdo we solve the millennial
problem or the Gen Z problem, Imean I guess it's Gen Z now
(29:40):
Millennials are starting to ageout.
I always tell them the only wayyou're going to solve that
problem is to wait for them togrow up, because we all did it
and we were all there and youknow drinking Boone's Farm or
whatever it was, when we wereyounger.
You know that translated.
Because you do grow up and Isaid you know you want a new
generation of whiskey drinkers.
Wait till they've got mortgagesand second marriages.
They're going to be whiskeydrinkers, they're coming.
(30:00):
You just got to wait.
So I think that the best thingwe can do and no one can predict
the future I think we need toone stop commoditizing.
We've got to get away fromsaying this is the tequila and
this is the gin, and becausepeople don't respond to that and
they never will, if they did,there'd be one tennis shoe
(30:21):
manufacturer in.
They did, there'd be one tennisshoe manufacturer in the world
and there'd be one TV stationand there'd be one.
It's not that I mean, if youuse TV as a great example, we
had three TV stations my wholelife and now I've got 27
streaming services.
You know, and that is becausethe attention span of people,
they want new, they want to bestimulated.
So, number one I would say wecan't commoditize.
(30:44):
Stop trying to be Tito's orwhoever the it million case
brand is, and start being trueto what you do.
Number two be innovative.
That's always cool.
Everything that we see has comefrom some form of innovation.
Champagne, even though it'shundreds of years old that's an
innovation.
We need to have that mindsetthat we're going to create the
(31:06):
next big thing, and we need tobe prepared for 10 of those
things to not work.
For the one thing that does youcan't be afraid to take risks.
So I don't know what thebusiness is going to look like
in 10 years.
I can say that I think you'llsee a shift in how consumers buy
.
I think direct consumer isgoing to be a more powerful
thing.
I think that the Amazon ofbeverage is going to come one
(31:28):
day.
I don't know who's going tofigure out or how it's going to
work, but it's coming because ithas to.
It's the natural evolution.
The only thing preventing itright now is federal laws that
govern alcohol.
You know, the same laws thatgovern tobacco and firearms, if
we're being honest.
So with that in place, it'sdelaying it, but it won't stop
it.
I think the three-tier system Ithink needs to really take a
(31:49):
look at itself and adapt,because, as people rely less and
less on the three-tier system,the only thing we're going to
have left to compete on aswholesalers is service, and I
think we need to get back to aservice mindset as well, because
if you're consultative, ifyou're helping your customers,
if you're solving problems forthe people that are your
partners, you're the companythat's going to survive.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Those are some great points there and I think
definitely MHW co-signs thequality and service from a
wholesale perspective.
There's a lot of tricks andtechnology and things that you
know a lot of folks are comingout with now and, yes, it is
innovative and that's somethingthat we have certainly pivoted
to.
But we've always said it'sabout the people and it's about
(32:33):
who's servicing the brands.
It's about the people at thebrands.
It's really about building, youknow, a legacy at the end of
the day and achieving goals andsolving problems together and
working together.
So I think that's great.
And then, what you said at thefirst part of your point about
Gen Z you know the fingers sortof pointed at them and they're
not drinking, and you know yourpoint was they will get there.
(32:55):
It's interesting that you saythat because IWSR has been
coming out with a lot of studiesrecently that the alcohol use
in this demographic has actuallyrisen from 66% in 2023 to 73%
in 2025.
So now they're actuallybenchmarking slightly higher
than what prior generations were, and it's moderation in later
(33:16):
generations that arecontributing to it.
So I totally agree with you.
I think there's a lot of sortof assumptions there and as they
age into you know the BevValcworld.
I don't think any of thesecategories are really going away
and I think there could befluctuation in performance there
.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So you know, bad news sells, and so, in the same
token that that, we saw anarticle a bunch of years ago
where red wine cures heartdisease, and then everybody
started drinking red wine.
It was the greatest thing inthe world.
We had a movie sideways thatmade beer one of the most
popular wine on the planet.
We need to look at things likethat, but we can't react to them
(33:51):
in the longterm and right now,with everybody saying nobody's
drinking anymore.
You've got to read it, take itwith a grain of salt, but go
with your gut and stick to yourplan.
If you pivot too early based onan article in an online
newspaper, you're going to havetrouble.
Let's, let's.
If you want to targetmillennials or Gen Z, great, do
(34:12):
your research, spend your moneythere, find out what appeals to
them and make that product.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
You know I didn't mention it before, but I think
one of the trends of the futurewill be low-alk, not no-alk.
I know there's a big movementtowards no-alk and mocktails and
that's fine, that's wonderfultoo, right, but I think low-alk
the people you know, thescientists in whatever lab
somewhere in Sonoma that crackedthe code of how to make vodka
and gin taste like vodka and ginbut be 20% alcohol they're
(34:38):
going to have a bright futurebecause people do want to drink.
You know, they want to beresponsible and they want to be
healthy, but they don't want togive up the things they like
they really, really don't Right.
There's not a one of us whohasn't at some point you know at
three in the morning got up andsnuck a Twinkie.
We know it's bad.
Know, at three in the morning,got up and snuck a Twinkie.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
We know it's bad, but we don't give up the things we
like Absolutely For me it'spopcorn, and for areas like
Midcoast Maine, where I live,there's not a lot of Uber and
Lyft, and so having low-alcoholoptions when you're out is
really, really nice, because weall got to drive.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, and the other side of that coin, too, that
people don't think about.
If you are making a low-outcocktail if I can have the gin
and tonic I love or themargarita I love, but it's less
alcohol I am more prone to beresponsible number one.
But the other side of that, too, is, whereas I could have had
one cocktail, maybe I can havethree because I'm getting,
(35:31):
because the cocktail experienceis not about going out and
getting hammered anymore, it'ssocial.
I'm with my friends, I'm in acool place.
If it were just about gettingdrunk, every bar would be a dive
bar.
But no people are spendingmoney building these fancy
cocktail bars with themes andall this cool stuff.
It's about the experience.
And so how do you make money asan operator?
You prolong the experience.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I will not stand for disparaging my beloved dive bars
, Alan.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
No, I am a dive bar aficionado and I always joke I
could find a dive bar inAntarctica if I was given enough
time.
That's the places I go and Ihang out.
But I do know that for thepeople that people are trying to
target right now, they want anexperience.
They want to have that socialexperience that makes it cool to
be with their friends.
You know they don't want to sitin the corner with that old
(36:18):
fashioned, you know, and thecigarette with the four inch ash
, just talking about how I usedto be in a band.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That's a very small segment of the market.
I love it.
I do want to talk about our funLas Vegas connection that we
have here on the podcast.
Going all the way back toepisode 34 of this podcast, we
had Eddie Rivkin on.
Eddie I understand, you know,eddie.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
My good buddy Eddie.
Eddie is a true Las Vegasconnector.
We facilitate at MHW his backoffice services for both the
Miami Spirits Competition aswell as the Vegas Global Spirits
Competition both the MiamiSpirits Competition as well as
the Vegas Global SpiritsCompetition and we're really
happy to be introduced toRevenue Beverage through Eddie.
(37:04):
And I think one nice thing thatI just wanted to mention here
that any entrants into the LasVegas Global Spirits Award have
is, if you place in metal Ibelieve it's gold but it could
be platinum as well there is anopportunity to have some sales
overlay services to work throughMHW at a preferred rate as well
.
So there will be sort of ajoint program there in the
future and so definitelyrecommend that any brands
(37:26):
listening go ahead and enter.
Even if you're not currentlyimported or distributed in these
markets yet, mhw will go aheadand help you out and we'll jump
on your COLA waiver.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
So please and actually to add to that Bridget,
the overall winner for both LasVegas, miami, the brand that
wins the top prize, that's sortof that overall like a best in
show or whatever it's called.
They actually will get 90 daysof our services as part of their
prize Incredible so for any.
It's a great value add for abrand that wins that coveted
(37:58):
prize.
You know it's a good jumpstart,so we're really proud and
honored to be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
It's time for our fun question that we like to ask
all of our guests.
Now I'm going to ask you thisquestion twice, one for today
and one, because you mentionedit, for the 1980s and that is
what's your favorite cocktail orbeverage?
You mentioned having a drink inthe 80s.
I want to know what that was.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
So in the 80s there were two that made the rounds in
my youth Number one whateverthe cheapest beer you could get.
Now I'm from Baltimore, so thecheapest beer, the drink of
choice, was National BohemianNatty Bo to those in the know,
still around, still going strong.
I still drink it when I go homefor Orioles games every year.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
That was my college drink.
I'm a terp.
I don't know if you know that,Alan.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Oh, there you go.
So I'm a Towson Tiger Bridget,there you go.
So I'm a Towson Tiger Bridgetthere you go, but you know it
was usually the cheapest.
However, you know if we couldpool our money and you know
anything that was $6 a case and,for the young people that are
experiencing this podcast, therewas a time when you could get
24 cans of beer for $6.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
There was.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
That was the time, but the liquor store was uphill
both ways in the snow and wedidn't have shoes.
But the other thing was we madethis really fun thing called
Rocket Fuel, which is where youput half a glass of vodka and we
didn't care what vodka, becausewe were not brand loyalists, we
weren't call branding, we weregoing I'm going to make this
really terrible drink.
I need Tito's.
(39:35):
No, you have vodka, you put afloat on it, you floated half
orange juice, then the float ofvodka on top and you drank it
all as a shot out of a 16-ounceglass.
It was called a rocket fuel andit was a very, very bad
decision to make it's like ascrewdriver with more work, it
seems.
(39:57):
It was like a screwdriver.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
But if it were shot out of a fire hose.
And now, today, we've all grown, we've all matured, our palates
have developed, alan, what arewe sipping on today?
Speaker 3 (40:08):
So there's twofold.
So I was a wine guy my wholelife.
I sold wine.
I sold fine wine.
I worked at wine and it's thetrue adage If you ever want to
stretch out and try new things,take the thing you love and do
it for a living.
So with wine, because when yousell wine, particularly fine
wine, in your circle, yourfriends, you become the wine guy
.
And people will call you atmidnight and go hey, I want to
(40:29):
impress this guy or this girl,what do I serve with X?
And you become the wine guy.
So when I go out now with all ofthe knowledge I've amassed, if
it's wine I don't order wine formyself anymore.
I always find the sommelier orwhoever is taking care of us
that night and I say what onyour list?
I want to spend this much moneyand never be ashamed to say I'm
(40:51):
going to spend a hundred bucksor I'm going to spend 50 bucks
or there's no shame in it.
People get it.
Nobody's going to look down onyou.
Go to a restaurant and sit downand find that expert because
they cultivated that list andthey care about it and it's, you
know, a little nursery full oftheir children and say what do
you like?
You know, what is it that yourecommend?
You saw what I ordered.
What do you get?
And they will get excited andthey will help you and you will
(41:12):
get something cool and new andthat's where you'll learn.
The other side of that, too, iswhen you do that you're giving
a brand that may need the chancea chance Because most of the
time they're going to recommendsomething cool that they want to
impress you, they want to showyou something.
Bet you haven't had this.
That's what it is.
So that's wine in the wineworld.
(41:33):
So I don't have a go-to.
I don't have a go-to.
I don't have a sit down andpick up a bottle of wine.
I like to rely on other peoplebecause that's how I learned.
I love that.
Now, with spirits verydifferent animal.
I'm a big fan of the craftcocktail craze.
I think it's awesome.
There's so much creativity.
It's part alchemy and partscience.
So I go to a lot of the coollittle you know cocktail bars
that are popping up in Vegas.
(41:54):
I lean towards gin.
If you can do interesting stuffwith gin, you've got me.
But I also have a deep, deeplove for mezcal in a cocktail,
because mezcal adds apersonality to a cocktail,
that's you know.
It's really unique and fun.
So gin and mezcal in cocktailsthese days, and then whatever
wine my sommelier isrecommending.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
I want to say thank you so much, alan Carter, for
joining us.
You've been a delight to haveand you're a true professional
and we'd love to have you backon the podcast again.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Anytime, I appreciate it.
This was really, really fun andI look forward to doing it
again.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
And thank you listeners, for joining us on the
MHW Mark podcast.
If you want to follow up morewith Revenue Beverage, the
website is revenuebeveragecom.
We will put links to that inthe show notes.
Thanks again to Bridget McCabefor joining me in hosting.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thanks as always, jimmy.
Thanks listeners, we appreciateyou.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
This podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen, andhere's to another two years.
We'll see you in two weeks,cheers.
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