San Jose, Calif.—The founders of the new company Liberation Distribution claim the new web-based distribution portal provides a new and easy path to wholesale sales for beverage alcohol suppliers. The website is set up to facilitate sales in California by April 5 and has plans to bring the New York market online soon. Liberation Distribution, or LibDib, is a three-tier compliant web-based platform designed to link retailers and on-premise accounts with wine, beer and spirits producers. “Distributor and producer consolidation has created a closed market where the little guys cannot get their product into distribution and accounts are being squeezed to purchase beer, wine and craft spirits from the very largest suppliers,” said LibDib Founder and CEO, Cheryl Durzy, a 20-year wine industry veteran in a statement announcing the launch of the company. “While managing my family’s brand I became incredibly frustrated by the lack of options available today. All brands deserve a route to market and LibDib creates an opportunity where makers and buyers can work directly together.” Wineries and breweries, or “makers” as LibDib refers to them, upload licenses and basic information and define product selection, calculate their listed wholesale price and pick where to distribute. Transactions on the LibDib platform will go live in California on April 5, allowing restaurants, bars and retailers in the state to order from makers of any size and from any location. Due to price posting in New York, transactions will go live in the coming months. The LibDib web-based platform handles the invoicing, payment processing, collections and taxes. The company has been beta testing with a select group of makers and on and off premise accounts over the past few months. LibDib charges a per transaction fee of around 15%, but plans to allows wineries and other "makers" to list their products on the website for free.
