Wow! http://www.nopaywinedistributors.com/

Web site for wineries to out deadbeat distributors.

http://www.nopaywinedistributors.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yikes…

Wow!

Also needed, is a site where distributors can post which on/off-premise accounts don’t pay. As that is also a big part of the problem.

I thought that was what the state SLA reports were for?

Great website, if a bit brutal. Wow.

Sorry to be a dumbazz, but What’s an SLA report, and would California have that? newhere

I don’t know about CA, but in NY (and I think NJ) stores/restaurants are required to pay in 30 days (most don’t, of course). If they’re late distributors are supposed to report them to the state SLA (State Liquor Authority), which then sends a warning out to all the local distributors (and royally pisses off the customers). I would have thought it’s similar at the winery/wholesaler level.

In the case of my wife’s company, SWS, I’d imagine the number of wineries that they are late in paying is dwarfed by the number of accounts that are late in paying the distributor. I am always astounded at the number and frequency of accounts that are slow/late payers.

In Ohio, the retailers have to pay upon delivery. The distributors don’t. Ask Brian Loring about a certain distributor that went bankrupt in Ohio and left him (and others) with a fat kettle of nothing.


A.

I don’t have any numbers I can reference, but I think it’s especially a problem for individual wineries that place their wines directly with retailers and restaurants. If you’re an individual winery that sends a few cases to a retailer or a restaurant, then you may not have much leverage when the account keeps delaying its payment.

Bruce

In the idle chit chat with several of our reps here in CA, I’ve been told that many accounts stretch their payment time to the max, going 45 to 120 days before paying, especially now because of the recession. During the slow winter months, restaurants were particularly hit, going over the 120 day period and a few being placed on the COD list.

Know them all too well. We caught their ways early, and stopped shipping wine to them without a check overnighted to us before releasing from the warehouse.

We were one of the lucky ones. Many wineries got screwed by them, sucks big time.

In other words, the website posted above would have been a great mechanism for you to share this info.


A.

COD here in Atlanta…at least for the retail store that is.

In MA & NY, that’s called the ‘COD list.’ Not open for all to see, but every wholesaler knows and cannot, by law, extend credit terms to an account that has an overdue invoice with any other wholesaler in the state. On top of that, wholesalers reserve the right to have ‘in-house COD’ (kinda like double-secret probation) where, if you have a history of credit issues, will make you pay COD for orders even if you are not currently on the state list.

My understanding is that’s the law in Ca, too. But, I remember from the Oakville Grocery thread on eBob that some wineries that reported delinquencies to the ABC were told to shove off.

MA makes a surprisingly small showing!
Go team!
Now imagine a site about retailers that don’t pay their bills… hoo boy…

I wish we had a site like that in Europe.

We get that mailed to us once a week… it’s LONG

dan, Where are you working now?

Vineyard Road - Importer/Distributor