FIRST SIP ® October 2011 Vol. 23 No. 8
Communication is Key W
hen Tom Wark, the executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, published
Toward Liquor Domination—a study of wholesaler political spending—I asked both major wholesaler associations to respond to the study's contents. Both the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America and the National Beer Wholesalers Association declined to comment. Was this wise? Th ey are both cited by Wark in his study, published this July, as having spent "more than $8.8 million on federal lobbying over the three election cycles between 2005 and 2010." Wark, for his part, was delighted to talk
about his study. What perplexes me is that both wholesaler organizations, and another handful of individual wholesalers I reached out to, declined to comment. Why they wouldn't want to speak in their own defense or even confi rm or deny the accuracy of Wark's study surprises me. It is a pattern the wholesale tier has had for a long time. Distributors rarely comment
when criticized, even by implication, and aren't generally featured as speakers at industry gatherings and conferences half as much as executives from the other tiers. "Distributors are used to being the crosshairs," notes Stephen Rannekleiv, an executive
director of food and agricultural research at Rabobank's New York offi ce. He is the author of the informative study Elimination of the Th ree-Tier System, which focuses on relationships between the tiers. He's also arguably one of the best informed, non-biased individuals in the business who will go on the record about how poor communication has come between the tiers. "Th ere needs to be a better dialog, there's not a healthy one at this point," he says. I couldn't agree with him more. I truly believe the wholesale tier brings a host of benefi ts
to the current distribution system and that market access for producers might well change, perhaps for the worse, if it no longer existed. Th e one major wholesaler who did talk to me, off the record, said he believed his tier continued to decline to comment because—contrary to Wark's assertions—they don't control the system. In my mind this would be all the more reason for them to speak up. So how do we close this communication gap in our business? I welcome your feedback
and would be delighted to send Wark's report to anyone who reaches out to me. Cheers!
Liza B. Zimmerman Editor-in-Chief
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CRISTINA TACCONE
