Establishing meaningful relationships and meaning work is NOT what we do for revenue.
It’s these relationships that really are the life-blood of our successes…or our failures.
Every day we have the opportunity to build upon, repair, refine existing relationships or develop new ones.
Here pictured is taking a little time to say hello and learn a little more about brewing at Firestone Walker Brewing Company with my friend and colleague Kurt Almond who heads up special projects there.
When we take the time to learn what is important to others we work with and see exactly what their passions are, the work that we do becomes so much more meaningful.
Wine, and the Bev-alc industry in general, is a business encapsulating the very best of and most challenging sectors of industry, and relationships are how we stear though the maze of details and complications.
* 🌾 Consider the challenges specific to Agriculture - the very foundations of independent agriculture are being challenged more today than ever in history. Other than the “dust bowl” (no, I’m not talking the brewery in Turlock) Dust Bowl Brewing Co., or plagues of Biblical proportions, but that the global agricultural trade is more treacherous and unforgiving today than any time in history.
* 🚢 What about International Trade - With a strong American $$ and foreign subsidies supporting the wine trades in Europe and other countries around the world, pricing wine both inside and outside the US is challenging at best.
Advantage….importer, retailer, wholesaler.
Not that it’s easy or simple around the world for international Bev-alc supply businesses, considering global oversupply with decimating effects in Australia and the EU, with each nation vying for the largest wine consuming markets with exporting attempts to ‘right their ships’.
* 🛍️ Direct to Consumer? - The obvious need to be data driven in the wine trade is no more apparent than the DTC market.
Understanding best practices is a game for experts like Sandra Beals, from DTC Wine Workshops or Connor Widder or Cathy Huyghe from Enolytics.
* 🚛 3-Tier Distribution - Operating in the archaic post prohibition system of alcohol distribution is not only incredibly expensive, but of the 11,000+ wineries (not to mention the myriad 1000’s of Ne’gociant brands competing in the same markets), only a handful control 80+% of the Is national grocery shelf.
* 📈 Marketing to New Generarions of consumers is a new ball game. The new consumer isn’t swayed by the Burma Shave signage and Hollywood romance commercials like our forefathers (there’s that sexist term popping up it’s ugly head!)
There is no end to the danger, excitement, diversity, or technical details and that, my friends, is a business of romance!
So, the moral of this story?
Keep your friends close…and prioritize your relationships!
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