I’m finding that my interest in this forum is starting to wain....

I’m finding that my interest in this forum is starting to wain. Some statements are being put out that are totally false and misleading (both from positive and negative).

I’ll try to make my contribution short and address one particular statement that annoyed me a little.

DW8 will not be the end of reps. People misunderstand the role of reps. Some suppliers sell direct to venue, others do not. Large companies like Diageo, Bacardi, Pernod Ricard etc. often will limit their direct supply to their largest accounts (think merivale) in a way to reduce prices even further; however, the majority of sales are through wholesalers like ALM, Paramount etc. These reps go into venues, talk about their products, provide samples and try to gain distributions and menu listings even though the sales come through ALM. The data is tracked by the Rep’s company. This will be the same through DW8. Company reps will be able to go into venues and do all of this but the venue can order through DW8’s platform. I am assuming at some point (if not already), reps will be able to have their own platform login and load specific discounts for certain venues of customers.


Yes, some reps from smaller companies work to take orders and sales but this is only for the smaller brands and direct to venue sellers. This is only a small number of suppliers and reps and therefore the platform will not “make reps obsolete”. There is much more to a rep’s job than direct sales.