Anthony Giardina and David van Wees have been open as Latis Imports in Ridgefield for a full year and have been growing weekly as the only importer of Palm Beer in America.
 “We have a corporate background that we”™re leveraging in an entrepreneurial venture,” said Giardina.
Giardina, a New Yorker and Fairfield University graduate, and van Wees a Canadian who earned his MBA at Sacred Heart University, met while working for InBev”™s American office in Norwalk.
The pair both worked on launching and building brands like Labatt Blue, Rolling Rock, Bass, Beck”™s, Hoegaarden and Stella Artois.
In November 2006, InBev sold the distribution rights to their brands in the United States to Anheuser Busch and eventually merged operations.
“David and I had a couple opportunities,” said Giardina. “We could have gone to work for Anheuser Busch in St. Louis and we could have worked for InBev somewhere else in the world. “We weren”™t exactly happy with the direction InBev was taking; we didn”™t really want to go to Anheuser Busch, a huge company. We got together one day and both agreed that we wanted to do something on our own.”
Van Wees who had lived in Belgium during part of his tenure at InBev had contacts at Palm Brewery in Belgium.
In the summer of 2007, a contract with the brewery was put together and by November, Latis Imports was formed and began selling Palm in America for the first time.
“For quite a while, we literally had our offices out of Connecticut public libraries,” said van Wees. “They have conference rooms, business centers, free Internet, and phone conferences via Blackberry”™s. We”™ve been able to keep our overhead really low.”
The pair found the public libraries deserted during the week while school was in session and perfectly suited for their nascent business. For its first six months, Latis”™ operated out of the Wilton Public Library.
Palm Breweries is a 261-year-old, family-owned craft brewer. Its original brew, the Special Belge, was the Belgian answer to pilsners and lagers that were becoming more popular in Europe in the early 1900”™s. Palm is Belgium”™s largest independent brewery located in the historic city of Bruges.
“They”™re the Belgian brand that has the most U.S. consumer appeal to it,” said Giardina. “It”™s an amber ale, but very light, very easy to drink, very approachable. It”™s ale by style and amber by color.”
Latis now has offices in Ridgefield with 30 accounts in Fairfield County.
“There are challenges,” said van Wees. “Wholesalers, the vehicle we have to get through in a three-tiered system, are getting bigger and invest less in the brand and their sales people are inundated with the amount of brands. One of the things we”™ve had to do is really invest in people, sales people who go out in the marketplace and support the brand.”
Latis has two salespeople in New York, one in California, one in Philadelphia and one senior level sales person out of their office in Ridgefield. According to Giardina the company is expanding constantly.
Latis has most recently opened operations in Rhode Island.
“This is a specialty sell and we”™re selling this door-to-door, consumer-to-consumer,” said Giardina. “Once you create that momentum in the on-premise world, then they start telling friends.”
According to van Wees, he and Giardina are very careful in selecting the type of establishments to pour Palm.
“One thing we”™re finding is that places have draft lists that are much better than they were 10 years ago,” said Giardina. “In Westchester and Fairfield in particular, we”™ve been very successful because there are a lot of nice restaurants and bars that are looking to expand their beer lists with something new and a little different.”
“What we see as an opportunity is the American consumer and Canadian consumer becoming more interested in both import culture and craft beers,” said van Wees. “They”™re looking for a story, a history, an authenticity as well as something that meets their flavor or drinking profile.”
Giardina said that as the big importers continue to grow, the specialty brands ”“ including European and craft styles ”“ provide an opening, but they need a route into it, which is where Latis”™ opportunity lies.
“The big are getting bigger and then on the other end of the spectrum you see a lot of craft brews popping up, doing a great job of taking what Americans think of beer and pushing the envelope,” said Giardina. “A lot of that inspiration is driven by European beer.”
According to Giardina, Latis is talking to other breweries and is looking into the future of helping bring other family-owned breweries to America.
