Interview, Part 2: ABC Fine Wine & Spirits

In the second part of our interview, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits executive vice president, sales Dave Larue, and executive vice president, operations and marketing Sean Kelly discuss trends in wine, e-commerce, marketing initiatives, and expansion plans for Florida’s largest retail chain.

SND: What stands out among your current wine trends?

Larue: While it’s not a big focus for us, the three-liter business is starting to pop a bit. Black Box and Bota Box are great brands for us. During Covid, we saw a downturn in percentage of basket for our private-label or “Source & Certified” wines as we really didn’t have the opportunity to hand sell. This year, we’re seeing a nice uptick in our private-label business—with the hot spot in the $10-$30 a bottle range—which allows us to stay competitive on the national brands while optimizing margins on our private labels.

SND: How would you characterize your e-commerce business now post-Covid?

Larue: Demand has softened. We’ve seen a noticeable drop in the amount of people who want to buy online and either pick up in store or curbside. But we’ve seen a lot of people window shopping on our website. While there has been a decrease in the conversion of online shoppers into purchasers, we continue to lean into e-commerce, knowing how many people visit our website. We believe that over time there will be more momentum on the e-commerce side of the business, and we plan to make some enhancements to our website in the coming months. E-commerce remains an important component to our loyalty program, particularly for members who receive the invitation to shop our “Vault” program of allocated products. It’s become very popular for Bourbon hunters in Florida.

SND: In what marketing forums are you placing the biggest emphasis today?

Larue: While we try to balance, we’re leaning more heavily toward digital marketing. We’ve been very successful with social media channels, and our email marketing remains robust and effective. In-store tastings really dropped off during Covid, and it required a bit of a ramp up to get people back in and feeling comfortable. Today, we’re back with a full suite of tastings, and they’re very popular. We’re leaning into in-store tastings as much as we have in the past and will continue to do so.

Kelly: One thing we like about the in-store tastings is that it gives us the opportunity to hand sell our “Sourced & Certified” collection. Our team members also love it because it gives them a moment to speak about these products with our customers.

SND: What do your growth plans look like?

Larue: We plan to add our 127th store within the next month or so. We continue to have a strategic and methodical approach to our pace of growth, with a focus on markets within Florida that are experiencing growth. A steady pace of growth and innovation has served us well over the years.

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