Interview, Part 2: Breakthru CEO Tom Bené
September 16, 2024In the second part of our interview, Breakthru Beverage Group CEO Tom Bené discusses investments in e-commerce, operations, and the workforce, as well as the rapidly emerging hemp THC drinks category and the big-picture outlook for Breakthru moving forward.
SND: Where are you focusing investment within the organization?
Bené: We’re doubling down on a couple areas. We’ve got a stated people strategy of being the place where everyone wants to work, and we know that if we do the right things there, investing in training and development, then that’ll make a big difference. The industry had a lot of turnover over the last couple of years. So whether it’s our customers who need training or our own people, we’re making sure we’re investing big time. That’s not only paying off in the short term, but it will in the longer term as well.
The second place is in the operations area. We’ve been investing heavily. We’ve got a facility in Florida that we’ve doubled the size of and are getting ready to open this month, making it fully operational. We went from half a million square feet to a million square feet in one location, and that’s just one of two locations we have in the state.
SND: What’s the latest on e-commerce with Breakthru Now?
Bené: We knew when we first launched it, we were a little bit behind everyone else. We’ve rapidly caught up, and we’re going to hit over a billion dollars this year going through the platform. We’ve focused on improving its performance and customer experience. We had a little bit of gap there but we feel really good about it now. And we also just launched some capabilities to help increase the personalization of marketing content for our customers.
Breakthru Now will continue to be a big part of the business going forward. Customers can pay their bills, look at their invoices, figure out where their truck is at. It’s really become a platform for overall customer service. That’s where we’re seeing great adoption, and then many of them are starting to use it as their order platform as well. But we are willing to take an order from a customer however they want to give it to us, whether it’s with our internal or third-party tools.
SND: What’s your take on the emerging hemp THC drinks category?
Bené: There’s so much still to be dealt with here, and certainly for us as a wine, spirits, and total beverage alcohol wholesaler, we need to be thoughtful about the legal issues involved. We’ll need to keep our eye on it, understand why and how consumers are using it, and for what occasions. We’ll keep our ears to the ground and make sure we know what’s going on, but nothing to report at this time.
SND: How do you assess the broad opportunities and challenges ahead for Breakthru in the coming years?
Bené: Our whole focus is being that distributor of choice in the industry—whether it’s the consumer-focused work or the digital enablement that we just talked about, or being the easiest partner to do business with through our operations platform. We have an opportunity to attract new suppliers who are confident in our ability to execute in the market and who see the investments we’ve been making. So we still see room for growth through bringing on new suppliers for sure.
Regarding the challenges, the consumer continues to change, both in terms of what and how they want to purchase. But I think we’re well-positioned there too, by investing and giving our team and our partners the tools they need to have insight on the market and meet consumers where they are. We think the market conditions will start to improve. Obviously this has been a challenging year, but all of these investments we’re making puts us in a positive position.
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