Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (Southern Glazer’s) just announced a series of capital and resource investments to advance the company toward its 2030 vision to be the hospitality industry’s most valued selling, logistics and insights provider. The investments reach across all areas of the business, from Commercial Sales, Digital and Supply Chain, and are focused on delivering the best returns for Southern Glazer’s customers and suppliers, the company states.
“To achieve our Vision and execute on our Strategy, we are making significant, strategic investments for the future—setting Southern Glazer’s up for success for generations to come,” commented Wayne E. Chaplin, CEO of Southern Glazer’s, in a news release. “We are making these investments now despite soft market conditions to position us for when the environment bounces back. To ensure we keep pace with evolving needs of our customers and suppliers in the rapidly changing wine and spirits industry, our functional leadership teams are collaborating and have begun to implement the resources and capital required to successfully execute against the first wave of our strategic initiatives.”
“From a Commercial perspective, Southern Glazer’s has re-tooled its route to market in five states, adding more than 200 individuals,” commented John Wittig, chief commercial officer, in the release. “We have also re-structured our service model for the convenience store channel, an area seeing rapid growth, adding nearly 175 resources in more than seven markets and evaluating incremental investments in an additional ten markets.”
Active Steps Toward 2030 Vision
Since announcing Mike McLaughlin as the company’s new chief transformation officer and its North Star transformation strategy in 2023, steps are also underway to modernize, standardize and streamline Southern Glazer’s core processes to continue to maximize value for suppliers and customers, the company states.
With technology as a foundational enabler, both the Digital and North Star teams are working in collaboration with chief information and technology officer Ann Dozier, recently named CIO of the Year by Consumer Goods Technology magazine, and her department on their respective strategic initiatives, according to Southern Glazer’s.
“We expect these investments to pay dividends in both the near and long-term and are taking bold steps to set ourselves up for success,” added Wayne E. Chaplin in the release. “We are doing important work now to make our Company stronger and more resilient for the future, while positioning us to best serve our valued customers and suppliers.”
