Breakthru Beverage Group Creates New Integrated Marketing & Communications Team
Nov. 28, 2016
NEW YORK -- Breakthru Beverage Group (“Breakthru”), one of North America’s largest wine, spirits and beer distribution companies, today announced the formation of a new Integrated Marketing & Communications team under the leadership of Brian Albenze, Breakthru’s Commercial Executive Vice President.
The new team will bring together Breakthru’s capabilities in corporate communications, public relations, advertising, and marketing communications, which include social media and email activation to the trade across a full suite of digital communication channels.
Albenze commented, “Bringing our full range of marketing and communications capabilities together under our commercial umbrella, alongside our analytics and strategy assets, will allow us to deliver current and relevant content to audiences and drive even greater performance for our supplier and customer partners.”
Reporting to Brian and leading these efforts are Breakthru’s VP of Marketing Communications, Carrie Bach, and Director of Corporate Communications, Kathleen Blomquist.
Bach heads up the Digital marketing team for Breakthru, which has established digital customer communications across our U.S. and Canadian markets. She is an eight-year veteran of Breakthru (and formerly Wirtz Beverage) and has 25 years of CPG and beverage industry sales and marketing experience with Kellogg’s, Sara Lee and Diageo. Bach is based in Breakthru’s Cicero, Ill., office.
Under Bach, Ashley Heaton, who is promoted to Director of Marketing Communications, will oversee Breakthru’s digital communications team of writers and designers. With three years’ experience in the wholesaler alcohol industry leading the development of a commercial digital center of excellence, Heaton will be responsible for driving customer engagement strategies across web, email and social media for Breakthru. Heaton brings more than 15 years of consumer marketing, digital media and public relations experience working with leading brands such as Aveda, Tiffany & Co., and Whole Foods Market.
Kathleen Blomquist manages corporate communications for Breakthru Beverage Group. She has more than 20 years of communications experience managing media relations, crisis communications, public affairs and internal communications. She joined Breakthru from Diageo North America. Prior to then she worked for Rubenstein Associates and Burson-Marsteller in New York, the U.S. Department of Justice and National Review magazine in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Army in Germany, and national and state-level political campaigns. She is based in Breakthru’s New York office.
Albenze added, “I am excited to bring these talented and experienced people together to lead this new team. Through the merger of our two great legacy companies, we have had an incredible opportunity to evaluate and identify the best way to do things, and we are either leveraging the best tools and practices from the legacy organizations or configuring new and better ways to do things. Our Integrated Marketing & Communications team is a great example of this.”