We’re cautiously optimistic. Obviously we’ve got some softer comps at the end of the year, and we think the inventories are finally normalizing in retail, although we’re still worried about the rising costs and the impact that has on the consumer, whether it’s a basket ring or the number of trips. The cost of going out to dinner right now, especially a casual dining experience, is pretty high, and it’s certainly something we’re going to continue to be concerned about. But we also see growth continuing in categories like Tequila, whiskey, and ready-to-drink.

SND: Are we approaching more sustainable levels of inventory across the market?

Bené: There’s no question that the whole industry’s experienced destocking across all categories, and consumers are more selective on where they’re investing their dollars. Certainly our customers are too. As we leave the summer, we don’t see as much excessive inventory in the trade as we have in the past, which is a good thing. But we’re also not projecting our customers will go back to the historical levels of buying-in product that we may have seen in the past. There’s probably a little bit of room with distributor inventories to still normalize, but I think you’ll see pull-through in the balance of the year.

Everybody’s trying to be very careful about the increased inventory carrying costs. But we also want to make sure that there aren’t out-of-stocks, especially as we go into OND. We’re working very closely with suppliers and trying to stay nimble and make sure we’ve got a pulse of what consumers want, so that our customers have the right inventory levels but also the right products.

SND: How is the portfolio developing in your newest market, California?

Bené: We’ve worked hand in hand with our core suppliers when we bought the Wine Warehouse business: Gallo, J. Lohr, Silver Oak, Far Niente, and others. And then we’ve added some terrific new suppliers, with Copper Cane and Disaronno being the most recent.

We’ve also made some investments in operations, so we’ve got automation in both northern and southern California now. That allowed us to also get some additional capacity for growth. We expanded our selling team, which has given us deeper coverage and created value for our customers.

There’s more opportunities like that coming forward, and as we build out our reach and our depth across the market, we’ve had a lot of good conversations with folks and I think they see what we’re now doing and that we’re set up for success in the California market.

SND: Is more expansion on the horizon?

Bené: We’re always looking for the right strategic market opportunities. We know the big anchor markets are important for our suppliers and we understand that, but it also has to be the right fit for us. We’ve never been about just planting flags, but really more about a strategic approach with the right partners or businesses, and it needs to be a good cultural fit and complementary to our current footprint. And so you’ve seen that with Wine Warehouse and I think you will continue to see that over time with us across the country.