Lansing is now down to one private local wholesaler for wine and beer. That doesn’t mean the competition is gone—just local competition.

“We had a competitor that was purchased by a Grand Rapids wholesaler, so that competition is still there; but people in Lansing, we hope, want to buy from a local wholesaler and support us like we support our local retailers,” said Nickolas Garyet, president of Classic Wines Limited. “We think it’s a symbiotic relationship, and more people are starting to understand that if they support the local wholesaler, the money stays in this market.”

“The Detroit market is not as healthy as it’s been in the past,” added Nicholas Pavona, vice president for the company and Garyet’s business partner. “They’re losing customers. I’m not talking about the consumers, but the restaurants and independent retailers. The large distributors in the state are looking to expand in other markets, and they always have, but it hasn’t been as dominant as it’s been in the last one and a half to two years.”

“There is probably more competition today for the amount of sales dollars. We have every single wholesaler in Detroit that comes outstate come through Lansing,” Garyet noted.

“Grand Rapids is the second largest market, so the Detroit wholesalers come right past our front door,” said Pavona.

“I think our retailers, for the most part, enjoy doing business with a local wholesaler to provide the things that they need,” stated Garyet. “We provide the best services, the best products, and the best salespeople, so we think we’re in a good position to take care of their needs.”

Despite the increased competition, business at Classic Wines continues to be good. The company celebrated its 20^th anniversary last February, and the two Nicks have now worked together in the beer and wine wholesaling business for 35 years.

“I don’t know if we even had any intention of being in business for 20 years,” Pavona remarked, “but we’ve got a great relationship.”

“So far, we’ve had a very good year and a nice increase over the last year,” said Garyet. “We’ve had an increase every year we’ve been in business, so we don’t want to break that record. The market itself is not growing, but our volume is growing. We’re gaining a larger share of the market, which means we need additional people, and that’s always good.”

Anticipating a growing business and needing more productive space, the company constructed a new 27,000-square-foot building on Cavanaugh Road in 2005.

“We really didn’t need a bigger building, we needed a more efficient building and a more efficient way to get our products out for delivery,” said Garyet.

“The new facility is certainly a lot better for the physically demanding part of our business,” noted Pavona. “The guys who actually do all the labor have easy access to loads to fill the trucks and unload the trucks, and now we use a forklift, so there is a lot less hands-on case-by-case movement. The old place was pretty small.”

“We have greater ease of putting up orders, and we can load our trucks inside so they’re out of the inclement weather,” said Garyet.

The site was designed with 18-foot ceilings, which, Garyet explained, actually triples their space with heavy-duty steel racks that can hold four pallets of wine. “It’s an inexpensive way to do a larger volume.”

As to what Classic Wines carries, he stated, “We do good value wines and [hand-crafted] beers and that’s what we look for in products, a good value-price ratio. That’s what the customer is looking for, and that’s what we find for them. Our product mix is beer and wine. We do some drink mixes and soft drinks to a small extent, just as a convenience item for on-premises accounts.”

“We buy wine from all over the world and represent beer from San Diego; Portland; Oregon; Chicago; California; Boulder; Colorado; Maryland, and we do a big promotion of Michigan brands,” added Pavona. “We do business with just about everybody in the state, and we buy particular brands from them and have the rights to sell them here. We have access to China wine. It’s not a big market here yet, but they’re cultivating the type of industry we have here now with more of a variety of items.”

One change in the overall industry has been the big box stores and chain retailers expanding into the wine and beer markets.

“A small wine store finds it very difficult to compete because the bigger stores are starting to diversify their selection, making it easier for the consumer to go to those stores,” said Garyet. “It would be a sad state of affairs to strictly have chain stores to shop in. Not that we don’t do a lot of business with the chain stores, and we appreciate it, but you can do so much more as a local wholesaler with the smaller stores. You can talk to the retailers, and you get to show the products, and they can make a decision on how they want to handle it on the spot. We have very little input as what goes into the chain stores. We’re told what to put there.”

While the holidays generate the industry’s biggest sales with 40 percent of the business in the last three months of the year, Garyet noted that right after New Year’s is a lucrative time as well.

“The first couple of weeks after the first of the year are decent because people deplete a lot of their inventory and make changes in what they’re doing,” he said. “But those really cold months like February or March are not really good for us, [nor is] really hot weather, as far as wine goes.”

As to what the future holds for Classic Wines, Pavona noted that it’s up to industry trends.

“I think we’re capable and qualified to compete with anybody in the industry,” he said. “It’s just a matter of whether the industry itself embraces small wholesalers.”