Two Vancouver firms handling brand management, sales, marketing and logistics in Canada for assorted international and domestic wineries and brewers have merged their operations.
Whitefish Beverage Agency, run by businessman Jay Garnett, and Seacove Group, run by Jack Segal, have combined their marketing and distributorship agreements for wines, spirits and ales into a joint venture, Icon Fine Wine and Spirits.
The new firm said in a release Thursday that its combined portfolio and sales group makes it “strongly positioned to be one of Canada’s top wine and spirit agencies.”
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As was the case for Whitefish and Seacove, Icon’s principal customers are to be the various provincial liquor boards in Western Canada.
Icon presents its suppliers’ products to the liquor boards for listing consideration. Once a product gets liquor board listing, Icon markets and sells it to “top-end restaurants, premium hotels, private wine stores, government-owned beverage alcohol distribution outlets and the buying public” and acts as the importer for its international clients.
The provincial liquor boards maintain the sole rights of distribution in their jurisdictions, Icon said.
Coming into the merger, Whitefish’s Canadian clients include Okanagan-based Therapy Vineyards and Tangled Vines Estate Winery, as well as Morning Bay, based at Pender Island on B.C.’s West Coast.
Seacove Group’s lone domestic brands are Propeller India Pale Ale and Propeller Extra Special Bitter, marketed for Propeller Brewing Co., a Halifax-based microbrewery.
Signorello Estates, a winery based in California’s Napa Valley and operated by Vancouver businessman Ray Signorello Jr., has also signed on as a partner in Icon.
Icon’s international portfolio is to include Signorello products as well as Champagne de Venoge from France, Quinta do Crasto of Portugal, California’s Square One Organic Spirits, the Czech Republic’s Royal Brewery of Krusovice and New Zealand’s Allan Scott Wines, among about 100 brands in all.
Garnett will serve as Icon’s managing partner and Segal as operating partner. Signorello will provide “client-side expertise and consultation.”
Very few agencies merge in this business, but rather “tend to take possession of their own territories,” Segal said in the company’s release.
In forming Icon, Garnett said, the companies’ strategy is to “grow our portfolio of old- and new-world brands while simultaneously balancing out our agency’s strong retail sales relationships with more on-premise expertise.”
The agreement does not affect Whitefish’s separate packaged goods marketing and distribution business, which includes products such as teas, salsa, spice rubs and sauces, plus specialty beverages such as iced teas, bottled waters and cocktail mixes.
