Southern Wine & Spirits of California Appoints Steven Burrows and Isaac Weinberg to Senior, State-Wide Finance and Pricing Roles

UNION CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southern Wine & Spirits of California (SWS-CA) — the largest division of the nation’s leading wine and spirits distributor, Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. (Southern) — is pleased to announce Steven Burrows’ appointment as Senior Vice President-Commercial Finance & Pricing for California. Concurrently, another California-based Southern division, Pacific Wine & Spirits (PWS) is pleased to announce that Isaac Weinberg has assumed the role of Vice President-Finance & Pricing for PWS in California.

“With Steven’s deep knowledge and strong performance in the financial and pricing areas of our industry, we have every confidence in his ability to identify key market opportunities to achieve our company’s goals and objectives across all Southern selling divisions here in California.”

Growing up in the wine and spirits business, Steven Burrows came to SWS-CA over 20 years ago. After completing his undergraduate work at Stanford University in 1976 and then his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1978, Burrows worked for the Boston Consulting Group. When Burrows returned to San Francisco, he ran Haas Brothers, a family-owned wine and spirits distributorship in Northern California. In his new role, Burrows will continue to serve as a member of the California Leadership Team as he also continues to report to SWS-CA Executive Vice President-General Manager Jack Brennan.

Commenting on the appointment, Brennan said, “Steven joined Southern in California in 1989 to help design and implement new systems, processes and organizational structures. He has held many positions here over the years, most recently serving as VP Sales & Marketing-Spirits.” Brennan added, “With Steven’s deep knowledge and strong performance in the financial and pricing areas of our industry, we have every confidence in his ability to identify key market opportunities to achieve our company’s goals and objectives across all Southern selling divisions here in California.”

Isaac comes to PWS from Diageo North America. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Isaac worked for General Electric for two years in the United States as well as four years overseas in Tokyo, Japan. He then joined the Diageo North America team in 1990 where he held positions as Senior Analyst, Brand Finance Manager, Finance Director for the Western Resort States, California Finance Director and—most recently—Western Finance Director for Southern for the past seven months. He will report to recently-appointed PWS Vice President-General Manager Stuart Gray.

SWS-CA’s leader of transformation initiatives, Senior Vice President-Sales & Marketing Patrick Daul, concluded, “Establishing these new pricing and finance roles for SWS-CA are essential elements of our goal to apply best practices in sales and marketing across geographies and selling divisions. Steven brings deep pricing, supplier relations and business savvy to the table. Isaac brings a combined richness of understanding about the people, goals and ways of working for suppliers and Southern alike. Both have clear visions for superior future performance as well as fine-tuned knowledge of the California wine and spirits marketplace.”

Both appointments were effective January 1, 2012.

About Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc.

Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. is the nation’s largest wine and spirits distributor and broker with operations in 35 markets. The multi-state distributor currently operates in the following markets: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia—as well as the additional seven states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah through the Southern-Odom/Spirits West partnership. In addition, Southern has a presence in Maryland and the District of Columbia through a joint venture with F.P. Winner Wine & Spirits as well as a joint venture operation in Minnesota with J.J. Taylor Distributing Company. Southern also holds operating licenses and permits in Nebraska and Texas. On a national basis, Southern Wine & Spirits of America, Inc. employs more than 12,500 team members.

Southern urges all retail customers and adult consumers to market, sell, serve and enjoy its products responsibly. For more information about Southern and its responsible consumption program, see: http://www.southernwine.com.