Southern Wine & Spirits Of America Announces On-Premise National Account Expansion

MIAMI, Sept. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. (Southern)—the nation's leading wine and spirits distributor—has expanded the leadership presence of its corporate National Accounts team to provide its clients with best in class service, improved efficiencies and access to greater resources. This team expansion will enable Southern to create seamless communication with key customers, suppliers and the sales organization.

"Since the implementation of the Southern Wine & Spirits National Accounts structure more than a decade ago, the organization has experienced a three-fold increase in sales," said Southern's Executive Vice President, Commercial Strategy Kevin Fennessey. "Due to this marked expansion of on-premise sales and service needs, the company has realigned existing internal resources and added supplemental resources to augment call coverage across 100 key national account customers across our national footprint," Fennessey added.

The revised organizational structure is designed to:

• Improve communication among states and the national team—executing national account programs more efficiently
• Leverage national account subject matter expertise and personnel across a broader segment of emerging and growing chains in order to develop and influence the business
• Better align with suppliers who are expanding their key account calls and coverage in order to support strategic initiatives
• Implement a consistent business model and best practice approach by overlaying a Regional National Accounts Vice President with the national accounts leaders
• Align corporate, supplier and state goals by implementing a national accounts state-by-state scorecard which will monitor how key sales metrics are tracking against goals

"We're adding more senior leadership as well as mid-level members to our National Accounts team," said Ken Kribel, Southern's Senior Vice President, National Accounts. "The goal is to streamline communication, prioritization and focus to ensure high-quality customer service across our footprint."

Positions and personnel added to the National Accounts team led by Bill Edwards, Vice President, National Accounts & Director of Sales, include:

• Three Regional Vice Presidents: Nancy Curry, Regional VP, West; Tony Dalton, Regional VP, Central; and Bryan Williamson, Regional VP, East
• Two Senior National Account Executives: Marc Patterson and Greg Eickhorn
• Two National Account Executives: Madison Hill and Nicole Osterreicher

"We have enjoyed strong success in this very important channel, but it is time to further evolve our model to provide greater value for our customers and suppliers," commented Brad Vassar, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Southern Wine & Spirits. "This new organization will drive a consistent, coordinated, best-practice business model by integrating the activities and reporting lines between the Regional National Account VP and the state-level National Account leads."

Organizational changes to expand and enhance the National Accounts team went into effect on Sept. 1, 2015. For more information regarding Southern Wine & Spirits, please visit www.southernwine.com.

About Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc.
Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. is the nation's largest wine and spirits distributor and broker with operations in 35 markets. The multi-state distributor currently operates in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. Southern also holds operating licenses and permits in Nebraska and Texas. On a national basis, Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. employs more than 14,000 team members. Southern urges all retail customers and adult consumers to market, sell, serve and enjoy its products responsibly. For more information about Southern and its responsible consumption program, visit: http://www.southernwine.com.

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SOURCE Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc.

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http://www.southernwine.com