2020 has been the year of the business plan pivot for a number of North Coast vintners.
Their key sales channels have faced significant restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. And for one Southern California startup aiming to make wine easier for consumers to explore, the limits on hotels and restaurants has meant a return to the original model and a relocation to the North Coast.
Having run out of space at its Los Angeles facility, In Good Taste this past fall relocated to 7,000 square feet of excess space at the Purple Wine + Spirits facility in the western Sonoma County community of Graton and has since expanded to 25,000 square feet, with plans to occupy more space there in 2021, according to founder Joe Welch.
“We had approached Purple Wine years ago to bottle our wine, but they didn’t have the equipment for our bottles,” he said. “We’ll probably be at Purple for at least the next five years.”
The venture started three years ago as Taste It Wines, repackaging bottles of luxury-tier wine into specially designed single-serving bottles for consumers to try a glass of wine in a package that exemplified the product. That plan quickly morphed in 2019 to producing wine under the company’s own bond and selling the bottles directly to consumers on a subscription plan. That’s when Welch brought on Matt Smith, co-founder and winemaker of GrapeSeed Wine Fund in Healdsburg, to make the wines under contract.
When the subscription model didn’t get traction needed with consumers, the plan shifted to by-the-glass programs for accounts such as restaurants and hotels, where wine is consumed on the premises. That led to partnerships with about 200 hotels in California.
“COVID threw that business model completely under the bus. Revenue dried up to zero, and we went back to only thing we knew, which was DTC. And that has been a huge success this time around.” Welch said.
In Good Taste bundled its wines into eight-pack kits of its 187-milliliter custom-molded bottles, equating to two full-sized 750-milliliter bottles. At $65 each, the kits such as California, United Grapes of America and Wild Child are designed to introduce consumers to new wine regions and varietals. By July, the company had sold 60,000 bottles, and at year end it was on track to ship 50,000 kits, Welch said.
“We’re more of a marketplace,” he said, explaining the difference from companies such as Winc that offer their own wines on a subscription basis. “This is a digital version of a local wine shop.”
Starting this past fall, if buyers of the kits like particular wines so much they want more, full-sized bottles of them are available in limited quantities. That’s because the 10-employee company focuses on offering tastes of a lot of options, buying wine in bulk from vintners in batches as small as 2,000 gallons.
4D Machine of Santa Rosa designed the new Graton bottling line.
Trevor Buck and Brian Foster of Cushman & Wakefield brokered the Graton leases between In Good Taste and new property owner FJM Graton Associates.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
"direct" - Google News
December 31, 2020 at 08:51AM
https://ift.tt/3rEywC5
Wine sampler startup In Good Taste bounces back with pivot to direct sales, relocation to Sonoma County - North Bay Business Journal
"direct" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zVRL3T
https://ift.tt/2VUOqKG
Direct
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Wine sampler startup In Good Taste bounces back with pivot to direct sales, relocation to Sonoma County - North Bay Business Journal"
Post a Comment