| Beverage Wholesaler - September 11, 2017 |
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| A Lifetime in the Control States |
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Michael Mosley has spent most of his life working with control state officials and brokers. As VP of Control States at Sidney Frank for more than 25 years, he lived through industry ups and downs, including brand introductions, failures and sales. Following a two-year retirement, he rejoined the industry at Conecuh Ridge, maker of Clyde May’s whiskey. I recently spoke to Mosley about his decades of experience in the beverage alcohol industry.
Beverage Wholesaler: What’s the biggest change you’ve observed within the control state system in the past three decades?
Michael Mosley: The greatest thing I’ve seen is the willingness and ability of agency officials to modernize. They’re educating their retail staff, taking them on distillery tours, and overall becoming more engaged. They want to have more product knowledge than they did when I started. In the old days a customer asked for a bottle, bought the bottle and walked out of the store. It’s not like that anymore.
BW: Without picking favorites, are there some states that have modernized better than others?
MM: It’s difficult to answer, because every state has advanced in some way. New Hampshire is doing great things with their store displays. Pennsylvania has really stepped up their wine category. Virginia has tremendous people on the marketing side putting merchandise on the floor and showing consumers they’re more than just an ABC store.
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| Cordials & Liqueurs Go with the Flow |
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The cordials category has tremendous diversity and tends to be a catch-all for anything that isn’t a standard base spirit,” says Cherie Koster, senior brand manager for St-Germain liqueur
Indeed, the fluid, anomalous and wide-ranging character of the cordial and liqueur category is both a strength and a challenge. Among the varied products are liqueurs flavored with fruit, nuts, roots, flowers, spices and veggies; herbal concoctions; cream cordials; flavored whiskeys (which have taken a life of their own); amari; aperitifs and many one-offs.
This diversity means that a variety of consumer trends are driving interest and sales, including a thirst for the new and novel, lower-ABV drinks, flavor fashions and, of course, the cocktail movement. The category is churning with plenty of acquisitions, new products, line extensions and startups coming into the fold.
A Rising Tide
Growth is positive for the category overall. The top 10 leading brands were up 1.1% in 2016, according to The Beverage Information Group’s 2017 Handbook Advance. But performance varied widely. Some brands were on fire—notably, Fireball (up 7.7%), while others showed more modest increases such as Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey (1.2%) and RumChata (1.0%).
“RumChata continues to grow both domestically and internationally and already makes up more than 16% of the cream liqueur category in the U.S., ranking it as the second best-selling cream liqueur,” says Tom Maas, founder and master blender of RumChata.
“Our Italian liqueur portfolio is one of the hottest in the industry, consistently growing by double-digits year over year,” says Melanie Batchelor, vice president of marketing for Campari America. Its portfolio includes classic brands Campari, Aperol, Cynar, Averna, Braulio and Frangelico. “Aperol is also seeing unbelievable growth in the US, consistently climbing at more than 30% growth month after month, according to Nielsen figures,” Batchelor says.
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ONE MORE THING
The Washington Post Magazine wondered in a recent story whether Vermont is becoming the Napa Valley of beer,
since its concentration of breweries and limited-release beers attract aficionados from around the country,
who travel great distances to tour the breweries and sample their brews in person. |
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JOBS BOARD
Regional Training Manager
Wholesaler: RNDC
Location: Tampa, FL
Requirements: BA or 6-8 years of experience as a trainer and sales experience with a beverage wholesaler.
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