In the early 1920s, my great-grandfather arrived in California on a one-way ticket from Greece with a mission: help his sister get married, then return home. But life had other plans.
He found work at a grocery store in Los Angeles, saved enough to buy it, and after surviving the Great Depression, he expanded his business into one of the area's first liquor distributorships. Thanks to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, he transformed it into a liquor distributorship. The company steadily grew throughout Southern California, establishing itself by launching successful liquor brands.
After his military service, his son - my grandfather, Lambi - joined the business and began learning the ins and outs of distribution. Shortly thereafter, my grandfather convinced the Coors family to give him a chance with a small beer territory. He started making deliveries himself using his dad's warehouse and trucks. Sales began to grow quickly. He had to hire a second driver, then a third. Before long, he was outselling his own father. He eventually bought out his dad which allowed his dad to retire, fulfilling his dream of returning to live in Greece with his wife.
That little grocery store became Haralambos Beverage Company, and for decades our family grew it into one of the most respected names in beverage distribution. We helped scale some of the biggest names in the game: Coors, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Tecate and later helped scale the rise in non alcoholics with brands like Snapple, Vitaminwater, Talking Rain, Body Armor, Celsius, Core... The list goes on.
In 2018, we sold Haralambos Beverage Co. to Classic Beverage of Southern California. And that’s when Alta’s next chapter began.
Alta Marketing Co. - a side company originally created in 1991 to distribute Tecate - was reborn as Alta Warehousing & Logistics. Same family. Same beverage focus. New mission.
Our goal was simple: Become the most reliable, transparent warehousing partner for beverage brands.
Why just beverage? Because we’ve lived it.
We know how heavy it is. We know how it moves. We know the pain of short code dates. And we know what it feels like when the wrong partner drops the ball.
Most 3PLs serve everyone. Makeup, food, electronics, fashion. We don’t. We serve one customer: beverage companies.
And we built a model for them from the ground up.
We call it Concierge Warehousing.
- It’s transparent. The client sees everything.
- It’s customizable. We build the warehouse to their specs.
- It’s responsive. What the client wants, the client gets.
That model is now live in five states - and growing.
But Concierge Warehousing isn’t all we do. While our single-tenant model works beautifully across the country, in California we also operate a flexible multi-client warehouse. We run the same playbook, just on a smaller scale. This allows us to support everyone from emerging brands with just a few pallets, to established names with thousands. It’s all about scale, access, and partnership—no matter where a brand is on its journey.
And it’s working.
We are proudly warehousing for some of the biggest names in beverage and have been able to deliver exceptional results for them.
Poppi’s CEO Chris Hall recently said it best: “Poppi was able to scale due to our partnership [with Alta].”
From January through June of this year, Alta shipped over 42.1 million cases across all sites. We recorded just 1,196 cases of shrink—that’s 0.0028%, compared to the industry benchmark of 0.25%.
100x better.
That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a team runs on shared values:
Accountability. Excellence. Integrity. Loyalty. Reliability. Teamwork.
Our work helps brands grow - period.
One client called us in a panic: They needed 422 full rainbow pallets built and needed them done in 7 days —or they’d miss a national chain placement.
We said: No problem. We delivered in 6.
Their competitor—missed their deadline.
Because of our ability to react, our client was able to pounce.
Guess who got the shelf space?
What’s next for Alta?
We’ve got exciting things in the pipeline that I can’t share just yet - but know this: We’re just getting started.
In ten years, our hope is twofold: First, that we’ve provided such strong support, consistency, and service that our current clients are still with us - either growing their operations in custom-built, single-tenant warehouses across the country or continuing to scale inside our flexible multi-client facility. Second, that Alta has built such a deep well of trust across the beverage industry that when someone asks, “Who should we use for warehousing?” - the answer is immediate: Alta Warehousing & Logistics .
And I hope we’ve added a few more success stories to the list by then.
Because at the end of the day, your choice of partner is everything.
The right partner helps you scale. The wrong one costs you far more than you think.
We’d love to be part of your story.
Originally Published - LinkedIn
G4 Michl Haralambos is the Vice President Of Business Development at Alta Warehousing & Logistics, a third generation family owned business that is a leading logistics partner for the beverage industry.
