Harvey Chaplin built Miami spirits company into the nation’s biggest, donated millions
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits’ chairman Harvey Chaplin changed the way America drinks.
Chaplin, who died at his Miami home on June 9 at age 95, grew the company into the nation’s largest distributor of alcohol.
“There is nobody who was a more iconic figure in the wine and spirits industry,” said Mike Bittel, former co-owner of Sunset Corners, the West Miami-Dade wine and spirits store that had been in his family for 70 years through last month. “He was a true visionary whom, more than anyone else, is responsible for defining and creating the modern paradigm of what it means to be a beverage wholesaler and importer — not just in creating business, but also in giving both back to the community.”
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Philanthropy
As a philanthropist, with an estimated self-worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes, Chaplin donated millions to Miami-area schools of higher education, including Florida International University, and hospitals including Jackson and Mount Sinai.
“Mr. Chaplin’s interaction with future hospitality leaders over the years and visits by him and his son to the school and their advice and knowledge passed on to our students has been priceless,” said FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Dean Michael Cheng in a tribute published by FIU News on Thursday.
Southern Glazer’s contributed $150 million to Florida’s Step Up For Students Scholarship Program in 2017 and 2018 to give underprivileged children access to schools in the program’s network, including some private religious schools in Florida, the Miami Herald reported.
In 2019, Southern Glazer’s sponsored the University of Miami Business School’s Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series for the 2019-2020 school year. Chaplin’s son Wayne Chaplin, the company’s chief executive, graduated from UM’s law and business schools and is a member of the board of trustees.
From high school to career
The senior Chaplin started his business career in spirits with a part-time job in the mailroom at Schenley Industries in an office inside New York’s Empire State Building in 1946, the year he graduated from Boys’ High School in Brooklyn.
Schenley was a leading distilled spirits marketer and the American importer of Dewar’s White Label Scotch. Chaplin worked his way up to run wholesale operations.
FIU named its Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism after this generous, quick-learner in 2012, but Chaplin skipped college on his path to leading Southern Glazer’s. In 2008, Chaplin received an honorary doctorate from FIU.
“We could not be more grateful to Mr. Chaplin and the Chaplin family for their dedication to and support of our students, alumni, and educational efforts,” FIU President Kenneth A. Jessell said in the FIU News report.
Southern Glazer’s was formed in 2016 by merging Miami’s Southern Wine & Spirits, which Chaplin co-founded in 1968, and Dallas’ Glazer’s Distributing, which had formed in 1909. Got some Grey Goose vodka, Jim Beam bourbon and Yellow Tail wine in your bar? These are among the popular alcoholic beverages the family-owned company distributes nationwide.
Southern Glazer’s success
Southern Glazer’s, which distributes more than 7,000 brands of alcohol, wine, beer and other beverages nationwide, ranked as the 10th largest privately held company in the U.S., with about $26 billion in revenue from 45 markets in the States and Canada, and 24,000 employees, according to a 2023 report in Forbes titled America’s Largest Private Companies. Lakeland-based grocery chain Publix was third on that list with $54 billion and the only other Florida company aside from Southern Glazer’s to rank among the Top 10.
“It is with great sadness that I announced the passing of my beloved father, Harvey Chaplin, our company’s founder and chairman, and one of the icons of our industry,” his son Wayne said in a statement provided by Southern Glazer’s.
“His influence as a leader, a philanthropist, a loving family man, and patriarch of our family has left an indelible mark on all who have known and worked with him. He was a larger-than-life figure and will be greatly missed by my family, and our entire Southern Glazer’s team,” his son said.
Chaplin was born Feb. 9, 1929, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. After guiding Schenley, he founded Southern Wine & Spirits in South Florida with Jay Weiss and Howard Preuss.
Chaplin served in numerous senior executive roles from 1969 to 1993. He became chairman and CEO in 1994 and led the company through the merging of Southern Wine and Glazer’s Distributing.
Southern Glazer’s position as the nation’s top distributor led to recent investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, and is reportedly preparing to file a lawsuit against Southern Glazer’s over how it prices and sells wine and liquor around the country, Politico reported. The FTC could invoke the rarely used Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, a Depression-era law that prohibits suppliers from providing deeper discounts to large “big box” chains than to smaller “independent” stores, according to CNN.
Chaplin’s company was huge well before its merger with Glazer.
In 2002, market leader Southern Wine nearly “doubled the competition,” said the alcohol industry’s trade publication Impact, the Miami Herald reported at the time. That year alone, Southern Wine bought a controlling stake in the largest distributor in Illinois: Romano Bros., which had nearly $500 million in sales. That was the fourth Illinois distributor it purchased stakes in in 2002.
As early as 1969, Southern Wine acquired California-based Landfield Co.
In 2004, Chaplin set his sights on his home state when Southern Wine bought Premier Wine & Spirits of New York as well as its distribution unit Letchworth Wine & Spirits.
“It has been a long-term corporate goal, as well as a personal desire of mine, to have Southern Wine & Spirits compete in New York,” Chaplin told the Miami Herald in 2004.
Legacy of the Chaplin name
“Working for Harvey Chaplin and the Chaplin family for the past 25 years has been the greatest privilege of my career, said Lee Brian Schrager, chief communications officer for Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits. Schrager is known internationally for his role in founding the South Beach Food & Wine Festival in Miami Beach in 2002, which has been a major contributor and platform for FIU’s hospitality program and its students.
“Harvey was first and foremost a loving and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. Our industry has lost a true icon and pioneer. Miami has lost one of our greatest benefactors, a real life gentle giant,” Schrager said in an email to the Herald.
For his charitable contributions, South Florida institutions carry Chaplin’s name. In addition to FIU’s hospitality and tourism school, among the beneficiaries of Chaplin’s gifts and his family foundation: Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, which named its Comprehensive Stroke Center the Harvey R. Chaplin Family Stroke and Chest Pain Center; The Holtz Children’s Hospital; and Jackson Memorial Foundation, which dedicated and named the Chaplin Family Pediatric Emergency Room after his donation to renovate all facets of the emergency room.
Chaplin’s support also led to the Harvey R. Chaplin Central Building at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach.
“All of us at Mount Sinai extend our heartfelt condolences to Mr. Chaplin’s family and friends. He leaves a legacy of helping others through his kindness and generosity and will always have a special place in the hearts of everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” Mount Sinai Medical Center said in an obituary notice in the Herald.
In a statement, Bennett Glazer, executive vice chairman of Southern Glazer’s, added: “Harvey and I shared a mutual dedication to family, commitment to our communities, and investing in people as the foundation of business success. I am proud to have had him as a colleague and a friend, and join our entire Southern Glazer’s team in mourning his loss. On behalf of the entire leadership team, I extend our sympathies to his family, who meant the world to him.”
Survivors
Chaplin’s survivors include his wife, Roberta; his children Paul, Wayne and Terry; nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. His first wife Arlene died in 2000.
Services were held.
Memorial contributions may be made in Harvey Chaplin’s name to the Harvey R. Chaplin Family Stroke and Chest Pain Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center, or to the Harvey R. Chaplin Central Building at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach; or to the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University.
He helped found the SOBE festival and FIU wine program. Miami’s wine guru has died
