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Timeline

Shawn Beck - CEO & Owner of Specialty Imports, Inc.

40 Years In The Making

1977

Shawn Beck started the company while working in the retail wine business in Anchorage, Alaska. The very earliest customers for SPI were Marx Bros, Hotel Captain Cook, and the Corsair. The first wines sold wholesale were from Joseph Phelps.  Followed by Ridge, Cuvaison, and Chappellet.

 

1979

Shawn Beck incorporated the company, and his good friend Bob Warren became a shareholder. Bob was an Anchorage dentist, who aside from being a very good, and successful dentist, was an unbelievable salesperson.  So successful that the company needed to hire an employee to manage the business. So, our first employee was Gary Griffeth.  Through his tireless efforts, and Bob’s remarkable sales skills, the company was a success.  The company’s first deliveries were made in Shawn’s 1971 VW Bug.  The first real delivery vehicle was a 1-ton GMC van.  Very convenient, but also very hard on the back.  

1983

Shawn made the decision to work for Specialty Imports, Inc. full-time, and the company grew from one full-time employee to three.  Gary became a partner in the business. The other full-time employee was Peggy, who Shawn would marry in 1987. She worked for the company until the birth of their daughter, Genevieve, in 1991. Hard to believe, but Peggy was one of the first women in wholesale wine/liquor sales in Alaska! And matched Bob Warren's propensity for sales! 

With 2 more employees, we quickly expanded our customer base -- notably beginning business with Oaken Keg! By now we began to be noticed by the other distributors. Other salespeople Shawn had known when in retail thought we were crazy.  In their minds, there was no way to make a living selling only premium products. Today, we are glad to say that they were proven wrong!  Customers buy from us because we developed an honest partnership with them.  If we have one principal - it is to sell to our customers what they want and need.  We will always strive to sell super products. However - suppliers, sadly, come and go.  It is the people that work at our company and who develop the customer relationships that make us successful. 

 

1985 

At this point we represented so many beautiful wines, particularly from California:

Caymus, Chalone, Dry Creek, Edna Valley, Kenwood, Far Niente, Fetzer, Jordan, Grgich, Sonoma Cutrer, Schramsberg, Silverado, Wild Horse, and Zaca Mesa.

For imported wines Directly importing Georges Duboeuf, Louis Latour, Faiveley, many estate German Wines, Rudolf Muller, estate Burgundies, and more.

1986

Crash of the Alaskan economy. We lost money this year, due to writing off bad debt from accounts.  Much was learned about keeping A/R in check from this experience! When the dust settled, this actually became a growth time for us. In addition to being able to buy our first commercial property (rather than renting) we were able to purchase used equipment at low prices.  It also helped that larger wholesalers pulled back selling fine wine. 
 

1991

Bob Warren sold his shares in SPI to Shawn Beck, who now held 2/3 of the company’s outstanding shares.

 

1993

Opened SPI’s first office outside Anchorage, in Juneau. Up until this time Shawn traveled to Southeast every three weeks or so. He would ship orders to Juneau in advance, then make deliveries from a rental car to the accounts we had in Juneau.  Mostly to the Baranof and Fiddlehead.  Which is how Shawn got to know John Decherney -- chief buyer at Fiddlehead.  John came to work for Specialty Imports, Inc. and has done splendid work as manager/salesman extraordinaire ever since. He has now retired from full-time work for the company but still helps in administration. Austin Erickson took the reins from John and is now the Southeast Alaska manager.
 

1995

The Fairbanks office opened.

 

1996

Moved to present location in Anchorage at 4119 Ingra.  Originally, we occupied ½ the building.  One of the reasons we decided to move was to have refrigeration for beer kegs, as our old location was too small
 

2002

Elaine Warren took over management and sales in Fairbanks in February.  She had been a wonderful customer before joining the company and has been our truly remarkable leader in Fairbanks. Now retired, and management has been taken over by Sara Coleman.

 

2003

With ever expanding business, SPI took over the entire building in Anchorage.

 

2008

Several Alaska wholesalers merged, and SPI acquired the rights to sell Midnight Sun Brewing Co and the imported beers of Merchant du Vin. 

 

2014

Implementation of Encompass system 3/14/2014.  This warehouse management software and mobile sales software has kept us up to date with technological improvements in route and warehouse accounting.
 

2017

Gary sold his shares to SPI and retired, leaving day to day management of the business to a very talented team of employees - Jersey Jones (Alaska sales manager), Mike Konte (CFO),  and Rob Weller (COO). Shawn Beck, founder of Specialty Imports, Inc. remained in place as President and sole shareholder.

 

2019 

Genevieve Beck, Shawn’s daughter, began to work full-time for the company in sales. She grew up in the business and much to her dad’s delight, decided to make it her career.  After graduation from college, she gained experience working in wine retail.  In addition, she worked in the production side of the wine business in New Zealand, Australia, and Oregon.  Genevieve holds certifications from WSET (Level 3 in Wines and Level 2 in Spirits) and the SWE (Certified Specialist of Wine). 

 

2022-2023

Genevieve became the Southcentral Sales manager and a shareholder in Specialty Imports, Inc. serving as Vice President for the company.

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