💡Market Insights: Don't Sleep on Tampa & Orlando

We’ve all heard that the Florida market is on fire. Which is true. Florida now ranks #2 nationally, behind only California in spirits sales, and #3 overall in wine sales. With more and more people flocking to the Sunshine state, there is a tremendous opportunity for emerging brands to capitalize on this growth and create effective selling strategies. 

While South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties) gets the majority of the attention, market entry here can often be expensive, and a significant investment is required to compete with the larger conglomerate-owned brands. What many suppliers don’t realize is that 59% of wine & spirits sales occur outside of South Florida, and that the Tampa & Orlando markets account for 38% of total sales in the state. 

Kevin Testa, the Founder of GADABOUT says, “the Tampa and Orlando markets for a typical “Big 3” Florida distributor are equivalent from a case standpoint as the South Florida market.” He continues: “For brand owners and emerging suppliers, the cost of doing business in these markets is significantly less than in the South Florida market, and progress here provides a great launch-pad into the rest of the state. There are a tremendous number of great off and on-premise accounts in these markets and a broader talent pool of sales resources to support your growth.”

And for brands looking for a more cost effective solution to deliver their product, there is some recent good news. Convoy Beverage Alliance, has significantly reduced their case rate delivery fees to these 2 important markets, from $26.33 per case to $11.76 per case. For brands operating in Florida utilizing the direct-to-retail distribution model with service providers like Park Street, this is a great opportunity to grow sales and reach new customers and accounts in a cost effective way.

At GADABOUT, we work closely with brands to develop a data-driven route-to-market strategy and then execute with a comprehensive suite of sales & marketing solutions with a partner network of on-the-ground agents to grow your business. With the right approach, the challenging Florida market can be highly valuable and deliver real return on investment for craft brands. 

About GADABOUT

GADABOUT is a specialized wine & spirits sales and trade marketing platform which supports high potential emerging brands with a suite of strategic commercial services and connects them directly to actively managed networks of experienced sales professionals focused on developing core local markets. For brands on the platform, this provides a cost-effective, managed and scalable shared resource solution to efficiently grow sales and depletions across multiple markets. For sales agents on the platform, this provides access to a vetted portfolio of brands and best-in-class trade marketing resources to support sales efforts and grow their independent businesses via a platform partner.