You have set up your own drinks consultancy business - can you describe the thinking behind it?
I had a fabulous time leading for change at Molson Coors, leading the wine buying team and heading up the brilliant drinks expertise, which incorporated our fantastic wine and spirits specialist sales team and the industry leading, customer facing beer and cider training team – which were the first major brewer to be accredited to deliver the new beer training courses from WSET to key customers.
The wine and spirits team were very successful and year after year have increased share in the UK on-trade and returned increasing profits post pandemic, with 2023 being our best ever performance. I have made very good friends both internally and externally, leading with a clear strategy and purpose, delivering exceptional results.
Gary Keller wants to share his front line buying, sales and marketing experience working at Molson Coors with drinks suppliers in his new commercial drinks consultancy business
Therefore, the time was right for me to take my 15 years of knowledge gained from this out to the trade and make a difference to others. Keller’s Cellar was thus founded.
Who are your target businesses and what are you hoping to offer them?
I have three key priorities for Keller’s Cellar. These are to:
- Support brand owners increase the penetration of their brands through reviewing their business sales and marketing strategies by channel.
- Supporting on-trade groups improve their buying power and reducing their cost base across drinks, whilst helping them sell more.
- Supporting knowledge across on-trade staff to have a better understanding of their drinks ranges through bespoke training.
With my knowledge and experience across all alcohol categories, this will support exporters wanting to get into the UK market, reinvigorate established businesses focus and update their plans, encourage new business to reflect and review their visions for growth, ensure operators really do have the best deal for them and their consumers, with great trained staff enabling a fantastic customer experience.
You describe your new consultancy business as a one stop shop – what do you mean by that?
It is a one stop shop as my knowledge and experience is wide and varied, meaning potential clients can discuss their plans and strategic intent, to which I can support across buying, selling, marketing and operations. Having led for this at Molson Coors, I have a depth of knowledge across many areas having gone through Brexit planning, creating new products, labelling exclusive brands, supporting consumer awareness with key customers and negotiating the best deal with suppliers. Effectively, I can support most business needs with commerciality at the heart of it.
So you are looking to help both sides of the buying and selling fence – producers looking to get into the UK market and then distributors, importers and merchants looking to sell wine into the premium on and off-trade?
Indeed. My strong clear leadership at Molson Coors allowed me to regularly cascade my vision to suppliers and sales teams, to enable the creation of a coherent buying strategy, translating this into a credible selling strategy. This thorough understanding allowed for clear objectives and goals too.
It was not just the direct buying skills that Gary Keller learnt at Molson Coors but also marketing, sales, logistics, people and leadership skills that he now wants to share in his consultancy business
I have seen and delivered much success over the past 15 years, increasing margins, negotiating additional supplier support and extended on-trade wine market share from 2.5% in 2012 to over 6% in 2023.
With knowledge across wholesalers, pubs, leisure, hotels, events and restaurants, I can bring real diversity of thought to each client to achieve the support they need whether they are buyer or seller.
Yes my passion is for wine, but this will extend to spirits, ciders and beers too.
What particular experiences do you think you have gained working at Molson Coors that puts you in a good position to offer advice and support on a consultancy basis?
There are many experiences I can share. The support negotiated from wine supplier partners, all bought into the strategy, led for success for both Molson Coors, with record investment in 2024, and the partners continuing to enjoy growth.
Relaunching Pier 42, with better wine, new labelling and UK bottling drove bottom line savings and grew volumes selling out. It is on track to become a top five on-trade brand next year.
Working with WSET early to support their new beer training courses and becoming the first major brewer to be an approved programme provider (APP) for beer to add to our wine APP.
I even passed level three of becoming a cider pommelier meaning I can judge at cider competitions across the country.
My knowledge is wide and am always happy to listen to understand where people need help and where I could support.
What would you say are your core skills that you are looking to share?
As those who know me most would agree – I am open and honest with everyone. I lead through the phrase “seeking to understand before trying to be understood”. This is very important as telling clients what to do from the start will not work.
Actively listening, understanding their business objectives, sharing the knowledge gained before advising actions to answer the help and advice sought. The open, honest approach means that I will deliver the tough messages as well as the exciting ones.
These are backed with my deep knowledge of buying and selling skills, a like for creativity and marketing whilst secretly loving everything operational from transportation to customer service.
What aspects of importing into the UK do you think drinks brands and wine producers overlook that you hope to help them with?
Gary Keller wants to help drinks suppliers fully understand what it is that drinks buyers are looking for from them - and the quality of their drinks is only the starting point
For too long, wine producers and merchants believe quality is key to their success. This alone will not guarantee this and customers are demanding more.
Service is increasingly becoming important from supplying timely orders, invoicing correctly, giving great customer service in outlet, resolving complaints and issues quickly, going the extra mile to bring drinks ranges to life with the trade, optimising bespoke social media to reach more people with great experiences.
It is also vital businesses have a good social policy, treating employees and staff well, giving back to their local communities, considering the impact on the environment and knowing their sustainable practises, whilst it is essential to have a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion throughout.
This is a passion for me and why I am a member of the Drinks United Advisory Board.
What do you think are the key disciplines that importers and suppliers need to get right in order to get major buyers to listen to what they have to say?
It is really important the business basics piece is 100% accurate. In real terms, ensuring what a customer orders are delivered to the bond in full, invoiced at the correct price, supported with the correct documentation with wines communicated with the correct ABVs.
It is then vital suppliers have good selling stories and testimonials to show potential buyers that what is being offered will add value to their ranges. Where appropriate, you must understand fully their operation and the additional support you will give.
Across all categories know what the perfect serve is and be clear how you would share knowledge to staff to ensure that the drinks do not just sit on the shelf. At all stages look to create a good working relationship with each business and build from this solid base.
My knowledge in this area will enable mutual benefits to ensuring the wines being imported are the very best they can be.
You are also looking to help businesses get the most out of their teams – what sort of support can you offer there?
I am really keen to offer as part of my service mentoring for sales teams and coaching them for success. Leading a buying team I see the very best and worst of national account management, so have lots to share to all sales teams to ensure they are the best version of themselves in each call and through their correspondence.
For on-trade, I am offering staff training to either train knowledge around their drinks range, get them comfortable with their wine and cocktail menu and happy to get involved with wine, spirits, cider or beer dinners too for their customers.
You may also see me behind tasting stalls at key events. I love doing this mainly to keep learning and receiving consumer feedback. If you are sat in an office, you miss out on this great detail, missing what drinkers think of your ranges and end up pitching your products incorrectly. Feedback ensures you evolve your own knowledge and that of the businesses I work with.
You are also looking to offer advice and support around diversity and inclusion – what experiences do you have there you want to share?
I had the pleasure of setting up ENABLE, the Employee Resource Group (ERG) for Disability at Molson Coors. This enabled a group of individuals who are, or have family or friends, that are disabled, have a hidden disability or have a neurodiversity, identify areas to improve and change policies to ensure they are inclusive for everyone.
This involved initially forming the group, educating the employee population in offices, breweries and out in the field understand disability better and leading for and challenging the business to be better. We successfully held events to celebrate Disability Pride each July too.
This passion for improvement saw me selected to join the advisory board for Drinks United – the DEI team for the drinks industry set up in conjunction with the WSTA, WSET and Drinks Trust. This is volunteer role and very much in the early stages of formation. (You can read about Drinks United in this article on The Buyer).
I believe all businesses need to have a DE&I policy and the knowledge I have gained means I have a good understanding of intersectionality and have developed good contacts with organisations that can help support companies wanting to improve in these areas. Watch this space.
Anything else you would like to say?
The best offer I can make is if you want to reach out to understand more, then my phone is always on and my LinkedIn message box is regularly monitored. I am keen to help businesses big and small, new and established and have experiences to help solve your issues or kick on your growth plans. I look forward to hearing from you.
* If you would like to contact Gary Keller about his new consultancy business and how he might be able to help you then email him at Kellerscellarpod@gmail.com.
