Post #474993 by CincyTikiCraig on Wed, Aug 5, 2009 10:33 PM

I wanted to comment on a very disturbing trend that I have noticed of late. Although I live in Cincinnati, Ohio I shop for spirits in the Northern Kentucky suburbs that are part of the Greater Cincinnati area. Ohio has state controlled liquor (which means a sh*tty selection and high prices too boot) where Kentucky is a free market state with low prices and good selections. We are lucky to have two outstanding retailers in the NKY area; The Cork ‘n Bottle( http://www.corknbottle.com ) & The Party Source ( http://www.thepartysource.com ), both of who strive to maintain the largest and most esoteric liquor selections possible. There a lot of very pedestrian liquor stores in NKY, but these two stores are way above the bar.

Since the start of this year brands of rum have disappeared from distribution in Kentucky at an alarming rate. So far I have confirmed that the following brands are no longer in distribution in Kentucky:

Angostura-Entire Line
Ron del Barrilito 2 & 3 Star
Cockspur-Entire line
Flor de Cana 12, 18 & 21 Year
Montecristo Rums
Plantation Rums-Entire Line
Pyrat-heavily discounted on clearance sale and likely discontinued
Rhum Clement and the Creole Shrubb-Entire Line
Rhum St. James-Entire Line
Ron Botran-Entire Line
Santa Teresa-Entire Line

There might be more brands that I’m not aware of as well. You might ask ‘Who cares, how is what’s happening in Kentucky going to effect me?’ Let me tell you how: Liquor (and wine) distribution is increasingly controlled by four giant corporations in this nation; Southern Wine & Spirits, Republic National Distributing, Glazer’s Distributing and Charmer Sun Belt Group. Two of those companies, Glazer’s & Southern, are in the process of merging into one giant company, so three corporations will be controlling about 90% of the liquor distribution in this nation. These companies rarely make decisions on a state-by-state basis, rather they coordinate actions based on a nationwide brand strategy. What is happening in Kentucky today could well happen in California, Illinois and New York tomorrow.

For the record, I have been in the liquor, wine & beer business for over 15 years, having worked in the retail, distribution and (mainly) supplier tiers of the industry and I now own a boutique wine & spirits brokerage business based here in Cincinnati. I have watched as the family owned distributors got squeezed out of the industry by the big corporate distributors, and the level of brand consolidation is only accelerating. There aren’t many independent family owned liquor distributors left in this nation and it's getting worse. This is bad news for those of us who love unique and esoteric spirits as the big corporate distributors are interested in concentrating on developing their big brands-Bacardi, Jim Beam/Fortune Brands (which now includes Cruzan) etc. A small supplier/importer/distiller doesn't have the production, sales personnel and frankly money to interest these big distributors.

Please let us know if you start seeing brands leave your markets. If it does happen I encourage you to complain to your retailers, and to the manufacturer and/or importer of those brands via the web. Be persistent, but polite. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and our complaints may yield reconsideration by the distributors to pick the brands up again.

Mahalo,

Craig

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2009-08-05 22:35 ]