Company Reports - Summit Beverage
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Summit Beverage
Summit Beverage Takes the Beverage Industry to New Heights
Written by Laura Canter & Produced by Chris Powers
SUMMIT BEVERAGE
Since its inception in 1968, Summit Beverage has developed a team of highly motivated professionals dedicated to the sales and marketing of beer, wine, and non alcoholic beverages. With two locations in Butte and Missoula, Montana, the company’s success is generated from its commitment to customers, employees, suppliers and to the communities in which they operate.
The combined education of Dale, Mike and Greg Markovich, who all attended the University of Montana, has allowed them to take their company to new heights as they look to the future with their long term vision for growth.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
This year the company plans to overhaul its website to make it more of a resource for its customers, suppliers and employees. “We want our website to become an educational resource for our customers and employees,” says Greg Markovich, Special Projects Manager.
Summit Beverage plans to put forth effort in developing and training all of its employees in all of the positions throughout the company. The soon to be Summit University, which includes a computer lab, will allow Summit’s managers to teach and develop employees, with different training classes for drivers, merchandisers, salesmen, and administrative positions, and the manager training program for new managers coming into the company. “We always continue to look for operational efficiencies. This year we are taking on a big project in re-routing both sales and delivery routes to become more efficient,” adds Markovich.
EMPLOYEES
Summit Beverage has in place a very comprehensive benefit package that ranges from full health/dental/vision plan after 60 days to endless educational resources and opportunities for those employees who are wishing to advance themselves for personal and/or professional reasons. The company believes in the use of employee’s surveys to ensure they are meeting the needs of the employees and make adjustments or enhancements to their benefit package based upon the results. They have recently increased their healthcare package to include enhanced preventive care benefits and a vision plan while passing on no additional costs on to the employee. In fact, Summit Beverage has absorbed increased premiums and fees of healthcare related expenses for the past four years. At a time where many organizations have been forced to cut back on certain benefits programs – they have been fortunate enough to maintain and actually enhance most of the programs. A Summit Beverage employee has a benefit package available that consists of a full medical, dental and vision plan, a company sponsored retirement plan with matching contributions, gym membership contributions, flexible work scheduling and accommodations in technology, educational resources and opportunities, paid time off and sick pay and an Employee Assistance program that provides confidential counselling to cope with the normal stressors of everyday living.
This year Summit Beverage will be incorporating a wellness program into the benefit package. They will be introducing various tools and programs such as: health risk assessments (HRA’s), weight loss programs, smoking cessation initiatives, stress management, health awareness and educational advancement programs into the workplace with the hope of creating a more healthy and aware workforce. They want their employees to know that they genuinely care for their well being and are willing to make an additional investment to promote health and wellness. The program will allow the employees the ability to focus on their own and their family’s health and well being during the confines of the work day. The company hopes to create a health conscience and aware workforce that will make a more informed decision when it comes to their health.
STANDING OUT
Summit Beverage feels that its competitive advantage is the power of its portfolio. Considering the gamut of wine, beer and non-alcohol brands that the company represents including MillerCoors, Boston Beer Company, Crown Imports, Pabst Brewing Co, Mark Anthony Brands, Diageo, Sierra Neveeda, Gallo, Constellation, Trinchero, Treasury Wine Estates, Red Bull, Xyience, Snapple, and many more craft/micro, wine, and NA suppliers. “We value all of our suppliers and feel it’s very important to have a brand building relationship with all of our supplier partners,” state Brian Todd and Dan Haney.
“The amount of experience and passion that our management and leadership teams have keeps us motivated and heading in the right direction,” says Greg Markovich. “The beverage business is one about the people and relationships and that’s why we invest so much back into our work force.”
GOING GREEN
In 2009, Summit Beverage implemented high energy efficient lighting in both facilities. After the motion sensors detect no movement after five minutes, the lights automatically will shut down in that area. Considering there is over 115,000 square feet of facilities, the company is seeing a 35 percent energy savings cost.
“Another thing we do is we recycle all of our cardboard which creates the majority of our garbage,” says Tom Kavran, Vice President of Operations. “It probably constitutes 90 percent of all the trash that we produce, but we currently do recycle all the cardboard, and this year we’re investing in another crusher that will actually crush and make bails out of our shrink wrap.”
Summit Beverage brings a lot of garbage to the landfill, but the company is hoping to reduce the amount of waste by 60 to 70 percent by recycling plastic wrap. The Company is also looking to invest in hybrid trucks and vehicles as well as better ways to route the trucks to reduce the amount of fuel used. In addition, all of the inside forklifts are electric, as the company no longer operates propane forklifts.
TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS
Summit Beverage deployed eoStar by Rutherford and Associates for their route account software in September of 2009 after being on a legacy UNIX based system for many years. “We realized that in order to stay competitive in the market, we had to make a giant leap forward in the technology area, and eoStar was the clear leader in being a next generation system,” said Ryan Morgan, Director of IT & Finance. eoStar is based on Microsoft SQL and .NET technology that allows multiple transactions to happen at the same time. With Summit Beverage’s legacy software, users were locked out of records if someone else was looking at it, had to wait for the system to post nightly before sales reports could be run and had to deal with duplicate orders resulting in a lot of wasted time for both managers and office staff. eoStar has none of those limitations and allows Summit Beverage to see into their business at a very granular level in order to make strategic business changes.
They also use push reports to e-mail sales reports, inventory levels, load totals, A/R information and other dashboard reports every morning. “We used to have someone run the report, export the report, attach it to an email and mail it out,” says Morgan. “It was a completely manual process. Now a large portion of our reporting is automatic.” They also deployed supplier web reporting tool suppliers can log onto Summit’s website and pull reports on demand. “The second that a driver syncs their handheld the sales information is available across the platforms – in the office, in the field and on the website,” adds Morgan.
Summit Beverage outfitted their sales staff with smartphones and data plans to allow their salesmen instant access to inventory, pricing, promotions and the ability to upload orders anywhere they have a cell signal. “We were able to see incredible efficiencies in our warehouse simply because our sales staff were able to get more orders in sooner,” says Morgan.
They also outfitted their drivers with mobile handhelds and printers to eliminate the majority of their settlement time back in the office. “We took an average route settlement for 20 to 25 minutes down to about five minutes per route. eoStar does all the work of tracking changes on the invoices and computing the invoice totals so that the customer has an accurate invoices,” Morgan explains.“It also keeps track of all inventory transactions on the trucks so that when we perform our strip truck process when they come back to the warehouse after their route is finished, we can find any product discrepancies immediately.”
Summit Beverage also deployed a document management system to connect their two facilities and ensure information sharing was the best it could be. “CNG-Safe has been an incredible value in terms of information sharing and nearly eliminating the time it takes to research information,” Morgan adds. “Previously, it could take an hour or two to simply get an invoice from a supplier to check a FOB cost of a product if that invoice was at the other location. Now it takes 5 or 6 seconds.”
LOOKING AHEAD
“We are trying to educate not only our customers, but the citizens and law makers in the communities we operate as to what we really, truly do,” says Mike Markovich, Vice President of Marketing. “We’re here to provide the control of license to license transfer of alcohol to make sure that it’s kept safe from the time it’s produced, to the time it’s consumed at the end user. I would encourage other distributors across the country to play an active role in their state association and make sure they’re up to date on legislative issues.”
According to Dale Markovich, CEO and President, Summit Beverage believes that investing back into the business is critical for the future and if they fall behind on investing, they put themselves at a disadvantage.
“We made substantial investments in 2009 and 2010 back into the basics,” adds Markovich. “We invested heavily in technology and our physical plants. For 2011 we will spend the majority of our capital budget on modernizing our offices and equipment.”
“[In regards to our future], we get from here to there by continuing to invest financially in our people, technology, education, warehouses and rolling stock,” says Dale Markovich. “We’ll continue to look for opportunities in the areas that make us more productive and first in class. Which is what we have tried to do all along with our business model is position ourselves to take advantage of consolidation opportunities, which we all know is either grow or go.”
Since its inception in 1968, Summit Beverage has developed a team of highly motivated professionals dedicated to the sales and marketing of beer, wine, and non alcoholic beverages. With two locations in Butte and Missoula, Montana, the company’s success is generated from its commitment to customers, employees, suppliers and to the communities in which they operate.
The combined education of Dale, Mike and Greg Markovich, who all attended the University of Montana, has allowed them to take their company to new heights as they look to the future with their long term vision for growth.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
This year the company plans to overhaul its website to make it more of a resource for its customers, suppliers and employees. “We want our website to become an educational resource for our customers and employees,” says Greg Markovich, Special Projects Manager.
Summit Beverage plans to put forth effort in developing and training all of its employees in all of the positions throughout the company. The soon to be Summit University, which includes a computer lab, will allow Summit’s managers to teach and develop employees, with different training classes for drivers, merchandisers, salesmen, and administrative positions, and the manager training program for new managers coming into the company. “We always continue to look for operational efficiencies. This year we are taking on a big project in re-routing both sales and delivery routes to become more efficient,” adds Markovich.
EMPLOYEES
Summit Beverage has in place a very comprehensive benefit package that ranges from full health/dental/vision plan after 60 days to endless educational resources and opportunities for those employees who are wishing to advance themselves for personal and/or professional reasons. The company believes in the use of employee’s surveys to ensure they are meeting the needs of the employees and make adjustments or enhancements to their benefit package based upon the results. They have recently increased their healthcare package to include enhanced preventive care benefits and a vision plan while passing on no additional costs on to the employee. In fact, Summit Beverage has absorbed increased premiums and fees of healthcare related expenses for the past four years. At a time where many organizations have been forced to cut back on certain benefits programs – they have been fortunate enough to maintain and actually enhance most of the programs. A Summit Beverage employee has a benefit package available that consists of a full medical, dental and vision plan, a company sponsored retirement plan with matching contributions, gym membership contributions, flexible work scheduling and accommodations in technology, educational resources and opportunities, paid time off and sick pay and an Employee Assistance program that provides confidential counselling to cope with the normal stressors of everyday living.
This year Summit Beverage will be incorporating a wellness program into the benefit package. They will be introducing various tools and programs such as: health risk assessments (HRA’s), weight loss programs, smoking cessation initiatives, stress management, health awareness and educational advancement programs into the workplace with the hope of creating a more healthy and aware workforce. They want their employees to know that they genuinely care for their well being and are willing to make an additional investment to promote health and wellness. The program will allow the employees the ability to focus on their own and their family’s health and well being during the confines of the work day. The company hopes to create a health conscience and aware workforce that will make a more informed decision when it comes to their health.
STANDING OUT
Summit Beverage feels that its competitive advantage is the power of its portfolio. Considering the gamut of wine, beer and non-alcohol brands that the company represents including MillerCoors, Boston Beer Company, Crown Imports, Pabst Brewing Co, Mark Anthony Brands, Diageo, Sierra Neveeda, Gallo, Constellation, Trinchero, Treasury Wine Estates, Red Bull, Xyience, Snapple, and many more craft/micro, wine, and NA suppliers. “We value all of our suppliers and feel it’s very important to have a brand building relationship with all of our supplier partners,” state Brian Todd and Dan Haney.
“The amount of experience and passion that our management and leadership teams have keeps us motivated and heading in the right direction,” says Greg Markovich. “The beverage business is one about the people and relationships and that’s why we invest so much back into our work force.”
GOING GREEN
In 2009, Summit Beverage implemented high energy efficient lighting in both facilities. After the motion sensors detect no movement after five minutes, the lights automatically will shut down in that area. Considering there is over 115,000 square feet of facilities, the company is seeing a 35 percent energy savings cost.
“Another thing we do is we recycle all of our cardboard which creates the majority of our garbage,” says Tom Kavran, Vice President of Operations. “It probably constitutes 90 percent of all the trash that we produce, but we currently do recycle all the cardboard, and this year we’re investing in another crusher that will actually crush and make bails out of our shrink wrap.”
Summit Beverage brings a lot of garbage to the landfill, but the company is hoping to reduce the amount of waste by 60 to 70 percent by recycling plastic wrap. The Company is also looking to invest in hybrid trucks and vehicles as well as better ways to route the trucks to reduce the amount of fuel used. In addition, all of the inside forklifts are electric, as the company no longer operates propane forklifts.
TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS
Summit Beverage deployed eoStar by Rutherford and Associates for their route account software in September of 2009 after being on a legacy UNIX based system for many years. “We realized that in order to stay competitive in the market, we had to make a giant leap forward in the technology area, and eoStar was the clear leader in being a next generation system,” said Ryan Morgan, Director of IT & Finance. eoStar is based on Microsoft SQL and .NET technology that allows multiple transactions to happen at the same time. With Summit Beverage’s legacy software, users were locked out of records if someone else was looking at it, had to wait for the system to post nightly before sales reports could be run and had to deal with duplicate orders resulting in a lot of wasted time for both managers and office staff. eoStar has none of those limitations and allows Summit Beverage to see into their business at a very granular level in order to make strategic business changes.
They also use push reports to e-mail sales reports, inventory levels, load totals, A/R information and other dashboard reports every morning. “We used to have someone run the report, export the report, attach it to an email and mail it out,” says Morgan. “It was a completely manual process. Now a large portion of our reporting is automatic.” They also deployed supplier web reporting tool suppliers can log onto Summit’s website and pull reports on demand. “The second that a driver syncs their handheld the sales information is available across the platforms – in the office, in the field and on the website,” adds Morgan.
Summit Beverage outfitted their sales staff with smartphones and data plans to allow their salesmen instant access to inventory, pricing, promotions and the ability to upload orders anywhere they have a cell signal. “We were able to see incredible efficiencies in our warehouse simply because our sales staff were able to get more orders in sooner,” says Morgan.
They also outfitted their drivers with mobile handhelds and printers to eliminate the majority of their settlement time back in the office. “We took an average route settlement for 20 to 25 minutes down to about five minutes per route. eoStar does all the work of tracking changes on the invoices and computing the invoice totals so that the customer has an accurate invoices,” Morgan explains.“It also keeps track of all inventory transactions on the trucks so that when we perform our strip truck process when they come back to the warehouse after their route is finished, we can find any product discrepancies immediately.”
Summit Beverage also deployed a document management system to connect their two facilities and ensure information sharing was the best it could be. “CNG-Safe has been an incredible value in terms of information sharing and nearly eliminating the time it takes to research information,” Morgan adds. “Previously, it could take an hour or two to simply get an invoice from a supplier to check a FOB cost of a product if that invoice was at the other location. Now it takes 5 or 6 seconds.”
LOOKING AHEAD
“We are trying to educate not only our customers, but the citizens and law makers in the communities we operate as to what we really, truly do,” says Mike Markovich, Vice President of Marketing. “We’re here to provide the control of license to license transfer of alcohol to make sure that it’s kept safe from the time it’s produced, to the time it’s consumed at the end user. I would encourage other distributors across the country to play an active role in their state association and make sure they’re up to date on legislative issues.”
According to Dale Markovich, CEO and President, Summit Beverage believes that investing back into the business is critical for the future and if they fall behind on investing, they put themselves at a disadvantage.
“We made substantial investments in 2009 and 2010 back into the basics,” adds Markovich. “We invested heavily in technology and our physical plants. For 2011 we will spend the majority of our capital budget on modernizing our offices and equipment.”
“[In regards to our future], we get from here to there by continuing to invest financially in our people, technology, education, warehouses and rolling stock,” says Dale Markovich. “We’ll continue to look for opportunities in the areas that make us more productive and first in class. Which is what we have tried to do all along with our business model is position ourselves to take advantage of consolidation opportunities, which we all know is either grow or go.”
