Breakthru Beverage South Carolina

Julian Burzynski

Chief Operating Officer

Julian is the Chief Operating Officer with Breakthru Beverage Group. In this role, Julian oversees Breakthru’s customer-first execution strategy across North America, with oversight of the U.S. and Canadian operations and route-to-consumer efforts. He is focused on delivering a consistent and scalable model across the operational footprint that will foster superior execution, deliver against Breakthru’s performance objectives and support the company’s continued geographic expansion.

Julian is an accomplished, results-oriented leader with more than 30 years of experience within the distribution and supplier tiers of the North American beverage alcohol industry. A longtime industry veteran, his deep relationships with key suppliers and customers make him adept at identifying opportunities that drive growth.

Most recently, Julian served as Breakthru’s Region President, East, where he was responsible for all market execution in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C. as well as Bacchus Imports, the company’s fine wine specialty business. Working closely with the state-level EVPs, he implemented the company’s long-term strategic initiatives to accelerate performance and overall effectiveness and efficiency resulting in impressive year-over-year growth. Prior to that, Julian was Region President, Canada, where he effectively led the organization to higher levels of service and growth across the footprint.

During his tenure with Wirtz Beverage, prior to the 2016 merger with Charmer Sunbelt that created Breakthru Beverage Group, Julian was instrumental in the company’s expansion efforts as Diageo’s Executive Vice President and exclusive broker throughout Canada. He led Wirtz Beverage through the building of new facilities, implementation and integration of new technologies, mergers and acquisitions, the development of new supplier partnerships and the alignment of the company’s route-to-market approach nationwide. Earlier in his career, Julian worked in senior management at Judge & Dolph and the J. Lewis Cooper Company.

Julian is a graduate of Ferris State University. He lives in Florida with his wife Ann and enjoys visiting their children and playing golf.

Chris Sperling

Vice President, Sales (Elite Spirits)

Chris Sperling joined CDI in 2008 after fifteen years in the restaurant industry. As the Division Manager of New England and ADS Division, Chris helps achieve company sales goals by organizing, directing and motivating our new england and account development specialists. Duties include coaching associates, coordinating, executing events and cultivating key accounts. Chris was an instrumental part in the restructure of our sales organization in 2014 and 2018. Chris’s career began in restaurants and commercial kitchens, where he supervised and managed all areas of operations. Chris brings a strong sense of leadership and his lead-by-example approach and has inspired others on the Account Development Team to develop their careers within CDI. He holds a Bachelor of Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.