Read ALL your posts. And all you originally wanted was to make a few bottles of wine to save some $$$!! hehe. Having owned several businesses (some successful and others not so), I can sympathise and have empathy for what you are going through. Lots of learning was done and all those LONG hours are starting to pay off. You are now in a grocery chain. That could ramp up even more. Keep on keeping on. You can do it!time for our annual update. Into our 10th year of operation, we have had to negotiate some challenges this past year.....
Obviously with the government caused inflation, our expenses took a hit, but we were able to offset this by cutting back on labor by doing less, but more profitable, farmer's markets. We decided to work smarter, not harder and were able to choose our top 3 revenue producing farmer's markets to do this year. Instead of working longer hours for low attendance markets, we worked a market a day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. This worked out well for our "work/life" balance.
The Super market food stores (of which we had been up to 9 stores), decided to add an additional 3 stores and expand our reach. The challenge here was that these extra stores were not factored into the production schedule. Each day, after still working my full time job, we would work until midnight to meet production demands and keep our distribution outlets happy. So far, so good. We are hearing rumblings of an additional 3 more stores in 2024, so we are ramping up our inventory now in anticipation. Although the store takes their cut, having my wife drive to the store, unload the cases and drive away with payment. No having to work the market, check IDs or set up our booth. Quick and Easy.
Bottle prices, sugar and supplies have all increased about 30% across the board. Juice prices held to last year's prices, but the suppliers added a barrel filling fee instead of raising prices. Gasoline prices surged, so when we went on juice runs, we maximized what the truck would carry to make the trip worth our while. We were able to find a sugar source to save us about 25% per bag, but are still paying more than 2023. We have been absorbing these prices and making up the difference in the volume of sales, We have been thanked many times by our customers, but may have to correct some prices moving forward. But we can only raise prices so much as we get into the price range of some lower priced medium quality California wines. People will usually choose Cali over PA wines given the choice, but this is where our sweet wines win out. Cali doesn't make sweet wines and this is what sells for us.
Sales increased another 10% YOY, slowing due to production issues and just not having the time to get more bottled. Again, we are learning first hand about economies of scale, where we can only produce and store our product in the limited space we have. Though we have looked at expanding our production area, landlords are VERY proud of their spaces for lease. We still have the equipment of the winery which closed and we had purchased, still in storage as we don't have the space to expand, We continue to keep our overhead low and focus on quality and consistancy for our wines. We have learned that in January, we need to be focusing on the fall wines, in the fall, we are focused on next spring's wines.
As 2024 begins, we are hopeful for continued success, look forward to releasing a new wine or 2 and continuing to remain relevant in the wine market. At 10 years old, the winery is still fun to do, but we are looking toward the horizon to begin to determine our exit. We have made the wines, established our brand, found our outlets for selling and built up goodwill with our customers. Time to begin to look for a younger team to take the reins Anyone want to step in and own a winery???
Let's see what the year holds.
Really glad to hear this. I was concerned when I saw your sale of equipment posted a few days ago. Glad to hear that things are going well.getting close to starting our 11th year (October) so a look back on this year is due.....
Although we are still selling well, we down about 5% due to some issues outside of our control. A tornado in June went through our area and the State Park which we are named after suffered significant damage and cancelled a huge revenue weekend for us. Life also got in the way as we had to take time off due to the death of a relative and my wife wanting to get away for a girl's weekend (which she deserved). But life is to be enjoyed.
Our supermarket business has grown to 12 stores, providing a nice passive income for us. However, we are being strong armed to join a service to get paid, which will cost us an extra $500 just to get our pay. This is grinding the winemaker's gears for sure. The third party company said we can get our pay sooner, to which we responded that its a state law that we must be paid upon delivery. The third party provides no value add for us, only an additional expense. GRRRRRRR......
we were able to win the Best Beverage again for the third time in 4 years at the spring wine festival. Its not just having good wines, its how you SELL the wines. We seem to do a good job at that. We are considering entering our wines into some contests, but we would rather keep the costs in our bank account and let the customers tell us our wines are good by the sales. We never claimed to be the best winemaker or have the best wines, but we wanted to have the best bank account at the end of the year.
We took a chance to try some new wines this year, adding a Blueberry and a Pomegranate and bringing back some older wines which haven't been around in a while. The Pom will be bottled for the fall and will be rolled out for Labor day. It's only a small 25 gallon batch, so if it doesn't sell, no harm, no foul. The Blueberry was balanced nicely and sold out within a week. We will do that one again soon.
We have tried some new wine festivals and events in order to counteract our shortage of sales. One festival was very impressed with our wines and sales and has already requested us back next year. We continue to seek out events where we can maximize our sales. Farmer's Markets have been increasing in sales, even through prime vacation season. We do a deep dive into our sales at the end of the year, so we will reserve judgement until then.
Although we remain open to a tasting room, costs have been prohibitive. The location which pulled the rug from under us continues to struggle to attract any business due to their excessive terms. We feel that would not be a good match for us, reflecting back on what has transpired with the owners of the location. Oh well....
We begin to transition to our fall and winter wines. Our cranberry has come out in August and sold out the first week, so more bottling will take place. Fall juices are in next week and should be fermented by the end of September in time for the fall and winter holidays. 55 gallons of wine that used to take 3 to 4 months of hard selling now are gone in 1 month. That's a good problem to have, but requires a hard look at logistics and keeping the tanks full when harvest comes.
no that was when we purchased the assets of another winery which the owner had passed. We were going to double out production and move to a bigger facility, but the owners of the facility had different ideas. We wanted to rent the spece, but the facility owners took that to mean that they would be directing how we ran our company, were going to get rent AND 30% of all of our income AND were going to run a brewery, distillery, and an out of state meadery under our TTB license (as well as have us be liable for any incidents arising from the brewery, distillery and the out of state meadery). Not only was this going to be in violation of state law and licensing, but they wanted to control and dictate our hours of operation, what wines to make and direct our manpower to support their events (with us footing the bill for the manpower and not being able to recoup that cost). So we will incur the financial hit when we sell off the equipment which was purchased to expand and we will learn from it. It's an expensive lesson.Really glad to hear this. I was concerned when I saw your sale of equipment posted a few days ago. Glad to hear that things are going well.
Wow! Who owns that bigger facility, the Mafia?!no that was when we purchased the assets of another winery which the owner had passed. We were going to double out production and move to a bigger facility, but the owners of the facility had different ideas. We wanted to rent the spece, but the facility owners took that to mean that they would be directing how we ran our company, were going to get rent AND 30% of all of our income AND were going to run a brewery, distillery, and an out of state meadery under our TTB license (as well as have us be liable for any incidents arising from the brewery, distillery and the out of state meadery). Not only was this going to be in violation of state law and licensing, but they wanted to control and dictate our hours of operation, what wines to make and direct our manpower to support their events (with us footing the bill for the manpower and not being able to recoup that cost). So we will incur the financial hit when we sell off the equipment which was purchased to expand and we will learn from it. It's an expensive lesson.
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