Right after college I was a Falstaff route salesman in Austin. My route was the east side of town, in fact; I had east 3rd street before it was the place to party. Most of my accounts were bars, usually one to two cases per stop, but I did service Bergstrom Air Force base and a couple of grocery stores. My truck, a 1957 IH one bay, was loaded with 100 returnable long necks and 300 six-pack cans. Remember, this was all DSD. Fridays were rough, as the day ran from seven am to seven pm, and I usually went through two ticket books. When I turned in my resignation, Falstaff hired a recently retired Air Force Sergeant. He rode with me on the route for my last week Immediately I could see that being a beer salesman was not what this gentleman thought it would be. The sergeant did not last one month.
In the recent US jobs reports, the fastest growing segment of the employment population is part-time positions (under 30 hours). It’s been touted that Obamacare, along with the recession, are the drivers of this segment, as companies seek to acquire additional staff that do not require full-time benefits. Going forward, how does the beer industry fit into this segment?
On several occasions I employed part-time staff while running beer houses. In Kansas, we hired young college students to work as weekend merchandisers and to clean the lines. Most distributors use summer college help is one way or another, but that is usually where it ends. On several occasions while working at Warsteiner, I was asked to accept interns from Germany, knowing full well that they would later be hired by the brewery.
The question arises, can, or will the industry be able to create positions that use professionals in a part-time function? This summer I had some discussions with a successful winery that is expanding across the country. In talking with the company’s recently appointed president, a longtime associate, the topic arose as to whether or not I could function as their expansion director on a contract or ad hoc basis. I had similar conversations with another small importer offering the same services. From a supplier view, a number of positions can be outsourced, but the distributor side is a different model.
As Corporate Director of Malt Beverages during my years at Glazer’s, I functioned predominately as an internal consultant, a position which could have served as an external consultant on retainer. Many large or even statewide beer wholesalers have used professionals to bring them quality new suppliers filtering out those not considered a good fit and bringing only those with the right product and business model. Again, the purpose is to fill a roll as a consultant and in so doing eliminate wasted time for the wholesaler.
Day to-day distributor operations and the various functions within, would be difficult to operate with part-time employees, but not impossible. Part-time warehousing, merchandising, and special events excluded, can there be part-time positions for marketing? Or do distributors believe, “we have deep depth!”
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