Triangle Distributing Co. recently found itself ranked once again among the best by Anheuser-Busch’s “Voice of the Retailer” service benchmark. The two distributorships under the Triangle Corporation—Triangle and Heimark Distributing Co.—scored 95 and 96, respectively, out of a possible 100, according to outside auditors.

Triangle Distributing Co. president Peter Heimark thinks he knows why: “Big distributors are getting bigger. We’ve spoken to a lot of angry customers, and we took advantage of that by upping our service levels to get more taps.

We’re also winning with the little retailers because we can service them better.” Heimark knows beverages; he’s a third-generation distributor who joined Triangle in 1997 after earning an MBA from the University of Southern California. The Heimark family has been in the beer business since the late 1930s, when Peter’s grandfather, Rudy Heimark, became a Schlitz/Eastside Brewing Distributor in Coachella Valley, just east of Palm Springs, Calif., USA.
Triangle was founded originally as a Falstaff distributor in 1957 by Rudy, his son Don Heimark (Peter’s father) and Jim Fleming, hence the name “Triangle.” Triangle’s piece of East Los Angeles County is a densely populated 13-mile diameter territory that is urban, blue collar and Latino (75 percent of the population).

Triangle became an Anheuser-Busch distributor in early 1958. “My dad says it was their keen foresight, but I suspect they didn’t have the US$3,000 Coors asked us to pay the existing distributor!” laughs Heimark.

Heimark Distributing Co. was created in 1963 in Indio, Calif., USA, when Triangle acquired the Anheuser-Busch distribution rights for Coachella Valley, a 75-mile long territory that includes upscale Palm Springs. Today, Triangle and Heimark have separate general managers and sales teams, but Peter, also the president of Heimark Distributing, travels the 1.5 hours every few weeks or so to stay in Indio.

The distributorships have different portfolios since each serves a very different market. Heimark carried New Belgium Brewery as well as the InBev imports before A-B acquired that line, while Triangle has carried Corona since the early ’80s and picked up Heineken in the ’90s. 

With 2,300 accounts, the 1,400 in Triangle are evenly split between off- and on-premise, while Heimark is 300 off- and 600 on-premise due to the resort market, golf courses and restaurants around Palm Springs. Triangle’s market share is about 55 percent A-B, 18 percent Crown Imports, 3 percent Heineken USA, with the rest New Belgium, Arizona Iced Tea and energy drinks. Heimark Distributing has about a 65 percent market share for A-B products, comprising 95 percent of the company’s business with the rest New Belgium and other craft brewers.

When Heimark acquired Monster Energy drink last March, the company got “a big shot in the black.” Monster sold more than 100,000 cases within nine months.

“The desert territory has traditionally been our growth engine, especially with the housing boom,” says Heimark. “But now with the economy, the impact on agriculture and the housing crunch, that’s slowed down.”

New Belgium was the last vendor Triangle brought on. Now the company is focused on supporting the vendors it has, turning away inquiries to align more closely with Crown and A-B.

To align its efforts in the market, Triangle adopted the A-B mobility units last year in both distributorships. Heimark credits the units with good general route planning, inventory and goal management from the sales director down to team leaders and sales reps. The units also have more sophisticated sales presentations and can play new commercials that are coming out.

As part of Triangle’s superior service to retailers, the sales team focuses on profitability, using A-B software to run reports by brand. “Now that we just got a major price increase across our packages, we’re helping them decide where their prices should land to meet the same profit margin and volume over the next year or two,” says Heimark.

With more than 50 years in the business, Triangle has a number of employees who’ve been with the company for decades. To create new opportunities, Triangle instituted a management rotation system that allows its top people to get expertise in different parts of the business. There also is a promotion path east from Triangle to Heimark, with the current sales director at Triangle moving to Heimark to take over as operations manager.

“We’re all in this for the long haul,” says Heimark. “I have two young boys. I hope they’re interested in the business when they grow up.”

With the future in mind, several years ago Heimark decided to switch the company vehicles to hybrids. After an initial investment in eight Toyota Priuses, the results were so good that Triangle now has 15 cars that get 40 miles to the gallon.

“Gas and diesel are ridiculously expensive,” says Heimark. “We’re looking into alternatives to traditional tractors. Now we’re sold on going green.”riangle Distributing Co.

VITAL STATS
TRIANGLE DISTRIBUTING CO.
PRESIDENT: Peter Heimark
HEADQUARTERS: Santa Fe Springs, Calif., USA
’07 SALES: nearly US$10 million
EMPLOYEES: 260+
GOALS: To continue to gain sales and share for suppliers, increase retailer satisfaction across the board and provide new opportunities for employees.

From Beverage World March 15, 2008