Today we’d like to introduce you to Gordon Little
Hi Gordon, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We started Little Peacock Imports (a combination of our surnames) in late 2011 after driving across America and seeing the scant selection of quality Australian wine available. I grew up in Australia but I had moved to the USA, though wasn’t working in the wine industry at that time. We thought we saw a gap in the market for some small production Aussie wines and so we took a trip to Australia and toured wineries. When we found wineries we liked, we asked about their US exports (mostly absolutely 0!) and if they’d like to try working with us as their importer. We didn’t really know much back then, it was just a guess if we could actually sell what we were planning to buy.
Our first import was 226x cases spread over nine wines, imported from five wineries. And have never looked back! We’ve now been in business for 12 years, importing and selling tens of thousands of cases per year.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are always challenges, they just keep changing. When we started, the high Australian Dollar was a big challenge; it was once valued at $0.65, but when we began it was worth more than the US dollar. We had to suck it up on margins, anticipating it would eventually fall. Which it did, and trades in a more historically normal range today.
Most recently, the shipping headaches with Covid – the price of freight trebled and took forever to get stock here. It was impossible to plan accurately with the lead times required for freight.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We help US retailers, restaurants and bars sell more Australian wine by importing wines they can be proud and excited to sell. Our portfolio comprises 25 Australian wineries (none with a kangaroo on the label) and we sell them in over twenty US states. I think of our portfolio as: if you sat down in a wine bar in Sydney or Melbourne today, these are the types of wines you would find on the list.
What are your plans for the future?
We are working on expanding our footprint, seeking distributors in states where we don’t currently have distribution partners (hello out there?). Ideally we’d double the number of states where our wines are sold.
Pricing:
- Wines retail from $15 to $500.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.little-peacock.com
- Instagram: @littlepeacockimports
- Facebook: @littlepeacockimports
