How They Did It: Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits Supply Chain Transformation

From the January-February 2017 edition of Supply Chain Management Review.

January-February 2017

Transformation is a topic that comes up in almost every conversation I have with supply chain managers these days. Executives from companies as diverse as J&J Vision Care, the division of Johnson & Johnson…

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On January 11, 2016, Southern Wine and Spirits agreed to merge with Glazer's Wine and Spirits and cre¬ate the largest distributor of wine and spirits in North America. The new company, Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, LLC, or Southern Glazer's, represents more than 2,400 suppliers of wine, spirits, beer and beverages, including more than 5,000 individual brands. The company makes weekly deliveries to approximately 200,000 customers in 44 states, and distributes more than 150 million cases a year to a customer base that ranges from big box retailers and national grocery chains to hotels, retail outlets, and neighborhood restaurants, bars and clubs.

That same month, Bacardi, the world's largest privately held spirits company, announced that it had selected the newly-formed company to lead the distribution of its wine and spirits portfolio in more than 40 markets across the United States and Canada.

It could be argued that the latter could not have happened without the former: Prior to the merger, it's doubtful that Southern—or any other single player in the North American wine and spirits industry—would have had the scale and logistics capabilities to create the kind of distribution network Bacardi was looking for.

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