00 /US market entry · wine & spirits
Most US market entries fail in predictable ways. Predictable is preventable.
I advise wine and spirits producers, wherever they are from, on one market only: the United States. Price built backwards from the shelf. The distributor matched to your real volume. A first year managed, not hoped for. I have worked this trade from every side of the table, producer, importer, distributor-facing sales, and Paris retail, in both languages.
It starts with a form, not a meeting. Before we speak you get a written diagnostic of where your price lands on a US shelf. I prepare it myself, it costs nothing, and it binds you to nothing.
01 /The three predictable failures
Pricing built in the wrong direction
A US shelf price is decided three margins before the shelf. Price forwards from your cellar and you discover your position by accident. It has to be built backwards, from the shelf your name can win, down through retailer, distributor, and importer margins, to an that survives the trip.
The wrong distributor
The right distributor for 2,000 cases is the wrong one for 200. A decade of consolidation has made the difference starker. In a giant's book a mid-size brand is a rounding error, and in some states the law makes a bad signature nearly permanent.
A launch with no year one
Placement is not presence. If nobody reads the depletions, works the reorders, and walks the accounts, the listing quietly disappears around month nine. The first year is managed weekly or it is lost.
02 /Who this is for
Who I work with
- 01
Weighing the US
Strong at home, deciding whether the American market is worth the capital and the patience it demands. You want the numbers before the commitment.
- 02
Preparing an entry
The decision is made, the importer conversations are starting, and the pricing, the state order, and the distributor shortlist have to be right the first time.
- 03
In market, expanding
Selling in a handful of states and choosing the next ones. What worked in New York will not repeat unchanged in Texas.
- 04
In market, underperforming
Soft depletions, a distributor gone quiet, margin leaking somewhere between and shelf. It needs a diagnosis before it needs effort.
03 /Selected results
A few things I've helped make happen.
Brands and clients kept anonymous out of respect for their confidentiality. The roles and dates behind these numbers are public. References come when we talk.
See the full track record on LinkedIn →- 01
Opened a major US state market from zero. Within a year, it was one of the brand's three largest US territories.
- 02
Helped a premium winery roughly double its US revenue in a single year.
- 03
Grew one national retail-chain account around sevenfold year on year.
- 04
Lifted a European wine group's turnover 1.9× and its gross margin by eleven points.
- 05
Took a struggling Paris wine shop from 9% to 34% gross margin, then sold the business.
- 06
Took a French producer with no US presence into the market through a national importer, and launched two new brands there.
04 /The instruments
The practice runs on purpose-built instruments.
Every engagement leans on tooling I built myself, because directories and syndicated data answer yesterday's questions. Three of those instruments are on this site in working form. The rules behind them, all fifty states and DC, are collected in the Atlas.
The price ladder
The walk from your cellar door to an American shelf, margin by margin, state by state, retail shelf or restaurant list. Set your ex-cellar price and watch the chain compound.
Open the calculator →50 states + DCThe state-by-state map
Open, franchise, and control regimes at a glance, with the registration and distribution rules that change at every state line.
Read the map →
The Account Finder
Surfaces and prioritises the distributors and resellers worth your time in each market, so outreach starts with a shortlist worth working.
See the tool →
Current, not remembered.
I am in the American market this week, not remembering it. I run US distribution for a premium wine producer: distributor meetings, depletion reviews, price postings, national accounts. That is where the practice gets its currency. What is being bought, what is being dropped, where the shelf and the by-the-glass list are moving. Behind it sits the record: national accounts from Costco and Total Wine & More to Fogo de Chão, Morton's The Steakhouse, and Del Frisco's, and expansion across the whole country from inside the three-tier system. I read the rest with tooling I built myself, including a weekly pass over US federal label approvals (TTB COLA) that shows who is entering the market and with what. Not a playbook from a few years ago. What is happening right now.
I also take keynotes, workshops, and teaching on US market entry and the cultural fluency the trade runs on, in English and French.
06 /Start here
First, something in writing. Then a call.
Tell me about your brand and where you want it to go in the US. A written diagnostic comes back first: where your price actually lands on an American shelf, the set it would compete with, and the questions worth settling before you spend. Then, if we both see a reason to, fifteen minutes on a call to walk through it. Neither costs anything and neither obligates you.
See a sample diagnostic (fictional producer, PDF) ↗Deliberately small
I take on a small number of engagements at a time, by design. The work is hands-on and I do all of it myself, which is the point and also the limit. Every engagement has a defined scope and a fixed fee agreed before you commit. If the timing is not right, I will say so. And if what you need calls for a specialism beyond mine, I will point you to someone who has it.
See where your price lands.
The diagnostic costs you a form and gets you an answer in writing.