News
“Uncorking Possibilities!“ - 57M CEO Peter Morales on Cover of October 2005 Atlanta Tribune Magazine
10/13/05
"Uncorking Possibilities!" - Atlanta Tribune Magazine, October 2005. Download the PDF here: page 1, page 2.
by Audrey Arthur, photos by Sandra Rose
Peter Morales’s company is only one of about 10 minority-owned wine importers in the United States. “This is a European sport, the international wine game, so it’s a foreign concept for minority owners to have the knowledge and business background in this industry,” he says. “You are being tested at every turn and you have to respond with quality.”
Morales founded Peter Andrew LLC, a marketing and sales consulting firm, in 1998. During the past seven years, 57 Main Street Imports has been successful in carving a niche in its industry as a minority-owned marketer and importer of global fine wines and spirits. 57 Main Street Imports’ portfolio represents a selection of wines and spirits from Spain, Ireland, Argentina and Italy, but is most known for its import of South African wines.
Why the focus on South African wines? “I had always known that South Africa was a great wine producing area, so in looking opportunistically at what was underrepresented, South African wines were an opportunity,” explains Morales. “Also in evaluating the wine consumption of people of African-American descent, I also saw an opportunity. And then post-Apartheid, I wanted to help with the renaissance in South Africa in terms of the country’s agriculture, grape farming and educational needs.” On the educational side, Morales has set up an adopt-a-school program where five percent of the net proceeds of the company’s South African wines and spirits sold in the United States are donated to benefactor schools in the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
Prior to establishing 57 Main Street Imports in Garden City, N.Y., Morales was in consumer product management with Fortune 500 companies like Johnson & Johnson and Metz Metallurgical Corporation. Add to those names 16 years of marketing and sales background with several beverage industry leaders including Heublein Inc./Grand Metropolitan PLC, currently known as Diageo and Peerless Importers — a top U.S. distributor.
Under Morales’ helm, 57 Main Street Imports has worked its way through several business challenges such as securing funds to develop the enterprise. “We’ve been able to obtain access to business capital by forging good banking relationships on a personal level with branch managers and also by insuring that we as a company pay our bills on time and establish an excellent credit record. We’ve exercised prudent financial management, not over expending ourselves as a small business and staying inside our means.” Morales projects 57 Main Street Imports will earn more than $6 million in 2005. In five years, he looks to take the company to $12 million in revenue.
“I enjoy being an entrepreneur because the business development possibilities are unlimited and limits are self-imposed,” says Morales. “You have the ability to implement an idea immediately and see the results within a day.”