Beverage alcohol importer U.S. Beverage, LLC (USB) has just created an independent company, Gateway Beverage Group (GBG) to help domestic and international brands efficiently enter, operate and scale within the U.S. market.
Gateway Beverage Group is a next-generation beverage services and consulting platform that combines regulatory infrastructure, logistics and strategic advisory services with deep industry expertise and national distribution connectivity, according to the company.
“For nearly 30 years, through our work with craft and imported beers, we have built a national distributor ecosystem of more than 350 distributor partners across the country,” said Justin Fisch, CEO of US Beverage, in a news release. “A year ago, we established a division to help make that network available to emerging spirit and RTD brands, but we realized that there is a tremendous number of brands who aren’t ready to sell to distributors. Gateway will offer a suite of resources and services to help those brands gain scale and a stronger footing that will prepare them to sell to distributors in the future.”
Main Functions of Gateway Beverage Group
GBG will operate independently while maintaining alignment with US Beverage.
Leading Gateway is Ken Aufiero, vice president and general manager, according to the company, who was previously the director of spirits at USB. Aufiero brings more than two decades of sales, marketing, distributor and supplier experience in the wine and spirits industry, working for companies such as Bacardi, Fedway Associates and Proximo Spirits.
Brands partnering with Gateway will be able to choose from modular services that scale by market and brand maturity to customize their launch and rollout in the US, according to the company. These tasks can be time intensive and have complicated requirements of compliance management, warehousing, freight coordination and financial services support. By passing these operations to GBG, brands will be able to focus on other areas for business growth.
In addition, Gateway Beverage Group offers a host of on-demand consulting services which brands may engage individually or as part of an integrated solution, according to the company.
“Gateway will be the ideal incubator for brands seeking to enter and grow in the all-important US market,” said Aufiero in the release. “We take the complexity out of the process and enable brands to focus on what they do best. Then, when the time is right, we can make the introduction to the broader USB portfolio and national network.”
