Global Wine War 2009-New World Versus Old

Bonny Doon Vineyards, a successful winery business based in Santa Cruz, California, has grown from selling 5,000 cases of wine a year in 1981 to 200,000 cases a year in 1999. To keep growing and be more profitable, the business must choose amongst three possible strategic directions. The first strategy is to start importing wines from Europe into the United States. The second alternative is branching into a retail outlet for unusual wines of great value, accompanied by a high level of service. Lastly, the business’ D.E.W.N could be expanded to include wines not made by the company itself but by other wineries that follow the same values and philosophy.

The structure of the wine industry is quite different around the world. The barrier to entry is relatively higher in the New World than in the Old World. Referring to the market data on the level of concentration in 1998, people can see a few players dominate the markets in Australia and the U.S. while the level of concentration is quite low in Europe. Therefore, the rivalry in Old World is intense there.

“The size of global wine industry in terms of revenue , at the beginning of 21st century ranged from 130 to 180 billion in retail sales.” Furthermore, There are over 1 million wine producers in the world.

The dynamics of the global wine industry are better understood through a brief history of wine as well as an overview of the wine making process. Some countries have longer historical and cultural ties with wine then others and that can affect the quality and perception of the product in the eyes of the consumer. Also, the conditions in which the wine grapes are raised and the processes used to make the wine can create a superior wine and therefore a competitive advantage.

Wine production involves two parts of economic activity – viticulture and wine making in the winery. In the global context, wine production is dynamic due to the influence of globalization, technological advancements and extensive research. These have essentially influenced the nature, spatial patterns and the ecological dimensions of the wine industry.

The buyer’s power within the wine industry varies between different places in the world. There are for example strategic differences between Europe and the “New World”. The “New World” includes countries like the US, Australia, Chile and South Africa. In Europe there is a big competition

Some of the largest New World producers were the United States, Australia, Chile and Argentina. The largest of the Old World producers were France, Italy and Spain. The world’s top 10 wine exporters accounted for more than 90 per cent of the value of international wine trade. Of those top 10, half were in western Europe, and the other half were New World suppliers, led by

The scope of the innovation expertise that New World wine producers have is value-chain wide in scope, and in-depth enough to completely re-order manufacturing, fermentation, distribution channel, pricing, marketing and customer service (Cholette, 2009). New World wine producers

Similarly, in the United States, jug wines sales had declined approximately 3% per year during the past decades, while premium sales grew 8%-10% annually. Pushing affordable wine on to the shelves of new world markets will not necessarily increase global consumption by itself. Consumers have to pull the bottles off the shelves in consistent purchases. Although US per-capita premium consumption has been increasing, in order to increase further wine must be marketed in a way that will promote everyday drinking among a greater percentage of the population in a socially responsible manner.

Vincor International goal is to become one of the top five wine companies in the world in terms of earnings. In order to attain this goal they have implemented a corporate strategy that focuses on using their existing powerful position in market to help them developing sales, marketing, distribution capabilities on an international scale. The strategy also includes acquiring new wineries and wine brands in new emerging region in the wine market also called “New World regions”(Vincor, 2005) throughout the world.

Yellow Tail is the leading imported wine in the US. Introduced in June of 2001 by Australian owned Casella Wines, Yellow Tail sold more than 8.5 million cases in 2008, which is more wine than the next three Australian brands combined. This success has attracted substantial competition. The issue for Casella is how to sustain Yellow Tail’s growth in the face of emerging competition on a limited ad budget.

This growing demand has added to the attractiveness of the industry with many new producers entering the market. US Wine producers have also been able to establish an improved reputation among experts and are now becoming more accepted internationally. Wine producers have managed to make their products more accessible to consumers, offering them through a wider array of distribution channels. In relation to foreign competitors, US wine consumption is still small, with Americans consuming less than 3 gallons per person, demonstrating more room for industry growth. Wine sales through eccomerce and other direct to consumer sales have also experienced rapid growth. Laws facilitating direct-to –consumer shipments have helped in the increase of distribution of wine eliminating the need for other distributers.

In 2001 there were over 1 million wine producers worldwide, and no firm accounted for more than 1% of global retail sales. Because of this, it would be nearly impossible for the Robert Mondavi winery to dominate sales in any region. Due to Mondavi’s efforts, the winery became one of America’s most innovative,

The following analysis will use Porter's 5 Forces Model to identify the market power. The grape growers are the suppliers, the winemakers are the sellers and the consumer is the buyer. This discussion could also include the suppliers of raw materials for bottling the wine, the shipping companies used to carry the wine to the point of sale and also the supermarket, liquor store and restaurant owners where wine is often purchased by the consumer.

This case describes the global development of wine industry, and how new world wine players occupied the global market share from old world wine producer gradually. It is very interesting that author selected the Britain as the sample stage for the battle between the new world wine campaign and the traditional campaign.