MdV:
Merchant du Vin beer e-newsletter – Tuesday November 13, 2007: Beer Distributors
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome is available
now! The first imported winter beer seen
in the
http://www.merchantduvin.com/Samuel_Smith_Winter_Welcome_2007.pdf
We have some wonderful new items on
our e-store – a wooden Samuel Smith clock, an ice bucket, some beautiful,
slender lager glasses . . . why not click over right now and get at least one
holiday gift taken care of? http://store.merchantduvin.com/e/mdv
Media coverage of Merchant du Vin’s fine
beer portfolio continues to grow:
Orval Trappist Ale was in the
Oakland Chronicle on Oct. 24, with a top rating of five stars; MSN picked “10
Top Fall beers,” and included Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen; and the “Six Scary
Good Beers for Halloween,” chosen by The Street.com on Oct. 23 included Samuel
Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale and Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a
detailed article on gluten-free beers on Oct. 11 featuring Green’s, and we were
pleased to see that Lindemans Cuvee Rene was the top-rated gueuze in the BTI’s
World Beer Championships, as reported in the Dec 07/Jan 08 issue of All About
Beer Magazine. Also, Samuel Smith’s
Organic Lager and Lindemans Framboise are in the Fall ’07 Elegant Bride
magazine!
Moreover, festivals, dinners, and
events are offering beer lovers all across
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/news.html
Beer Chat from the
People with a great beer in hand
generally know something about the brewery that made it – maybe the brewery’s
location, maybe some other beer variety made by the same brewery, possibly even
the brewer or founder. Likewise, beer drinkers often have a relationship
with their retailer, whether it’s their local pub, a neighborhood package
store, or a nice restaurant.
But sometimes another part of the
beer distribution network is not visible to consumers: the wholesale
distributor that got the beer from the importer or brewer to the
retailer. Some small breweries do self-distribute, but the vast majority
of beer sold in
Beer distributors are generally
local. They maintain a warehouse, trucks, and staff; for a margin that is
probably smaller than you think they take care of ordering, presenting new
beers to accounts, delivering, and invoicing. They not only provide
merchandising help at stores, stocking shelves and building displays; they
often host promotional events; they do retail staff training; they keep track
of liquor licenses and laws. If a
keg runs dry or a package style sells out unexpectedly, the distributor sales
rep assigned to that account is usually the one who drives an emergency
resupply to the beer retailer. Beer is heavy, and expensive to deliver;
it is a closely-regulated industry; beer selling is ferociously competitive . .
. but good distributors keep the beer flowing and make it look easy.
Brewers focus on making beer.
Importers like Merchant du Vin focus on beer education and marketing. Beer
distributors take care of sales and delivery. These are the key reasons
But in recent years, and especially
in recent months, there has been interesting news of consolidation in breweries
– European breweries that are partnering with American brewers for
distribution, even mergers involving huge American breweries. We find it
interesting, because it looks like a wider awareness of fine beer is blossoming
faster than ever before in
What may not be obvious, however, is
that these mergers may have dramatic effects on local distributors. With more
beer brands being consolidated into fewer distributors there will be
pressure applied by big breweries to sell their high-volume mass produced
domestic and imported beers. Distributors could very well lose focus on
specialty beers that are presently on the upsurge. Distributor sales reps might
not have the necessary selling time to make sure craft beer is in your local
store or restaurant.
There could be some pretty big
changes, maybe even a bit of turmoil. Maybe fine beer will be more widely
distributed due to mergers; maybe not. You know who will make the
difference? Yep, the distributors.
Our distributor partners cover all
50 states, and we keep a listing on our website: http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/distributor.html
(Please note: by law, they cannot sell beer to you unless you hold a
liquor license in your state.)
If you are reading this newsletter
for the first time, check our archive at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/enews_archive.html/
and sign yourself up for e-news at:
http://www.merchantduvin.com/pages/1_about/guestbook.html
Merchant