Our Story
It has been said that the beverage business is a multi-billion dollar industry operating in a tiny, little world… and indeed… if you have worked in the Southern California market for any length of time, it seems as though everyone is involved in an elaborate game of musical chairs. Most everybody has crossed paths with most everybody else at some point in time, or at the very least, have mutual acquaintances in the industry if you’ve been in the business for just a few years or more.
In September of 1993, Thomas Adams got a job at a distributor where John King had been stationed for several years and George Ronay had recently exited, but whose name still lingered, as well as his voice which was incorporated as a part of the ordering system. John stayed on for a total of 14 years, all the while maintaining his friendship with George. Adams left for another position, only to be hired by Ronay a few years later at another distributor where he was working as a District Manager.
George resigned from his DM post, but always kept in touch with both King and Adams; all three ultimately attained positions as suppliers of the same distribution company. Paths would occasionally cross at a major tasting, pulling corks in a key account or in distributors lobby waiting to talk to the sales staff. Friendly, casual acquaintances engaging in small-talk to pass a little time or catch up on current events… until April of 2009 on a day that the distributor employees referred to as ‘Black Wednesday.’ At the end of the first quarter, the economy had hit a wall and on April 1st (that’s right, April Fools Day) dozens of supplier representatives were laid off including Thomas Adams and John King, with George Ronay getting added to the list a few weeks later.
Adams was planting a garden and doing some yard chores when his wife shouted out the window that George was on the phone at which point Adams bolted into the house whilst still covered in dirt and leaves… much to his wife’s chagrin. “I thought he was calling to offer me a job,” admits Adams. “He hired me once — he just might be crazy enough to do it again!” Alas, George was sharing his fate and suggested that a few of us should get together and throw some ideas around, but Adams already had an idea.
A couple years earlier, Adams found himself doing contract work for a major California winery who needed sales support in various regions around the country, flying in on a Sunday or Monday, working for a week, then flying home Friday night and doing follow up calls and reports the following week. Along the way (while making small talk in lobbies) numerous sales managers would admit that they would love to have a person like that, but couldn’t afford it… that’s when the light bulb appeared over Adams’ head; why not provide this kind of service on a temporary basis?
George shot out the invitation to assemble 5 people for a meeting, four ultimately met on May 1st of 2009, three became partners; Thom, John & George. John had been working for a large marketing company who remembers that first meeting stating, “I immediately saw numerous applications regarding the concept. Although it was devised to aid a single winery, the ‘Big Guys’ are hurting, too. They need an extra layer of sales support as much as anybody.” George adds to this by saying, “You can fire a sales person, but you can’t ‘fire’ the 10,000 cases of Chardonnay sitting in your warehouse. The distributors are overwhelmed; a supplier will always need people on the street to work through the back-stock… we provide that at an affordable price.”
The three could not have been better matched for one another. All three of them have over 20 years of experience in the fine wine and spirits trade, but each coming from distinctly different areas of the industry as a product of their career path; John with his experience in bringing upscale Champagne and Italian varieties to the fine restaurants of California, George had climbed his way into a position working with the major wine-selling chain markets and Thom having worked in 18 states covering dozens of major cities around the U.S., it seemed like destiny. Each agrees that the concept could not have come to fruition without the other two. “We hashed around every point,” Adams recalls, “but that’s what it took to put this together. We were in uncharted waters. Nobody had ever done anything quite like this before, but we persevered to create BevBlitz.”