Global Wine War Case 2009

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 assignment for this week was to write a paper based on the case Global Wine War 2009: New World versus Old. We experienced that it was an interesting case considering both Porter’s five forces model and Resource-Based theory, because they give two different perspectives of competitive advantage: Outside in and Inside out. Besides that we could have a closer look at innovations and what they mean for the competitiveness in the world wine market. In this paper we make an effort in explaining what the main aspects

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 premium wine segment is quite concentrated with high barriers to entry making mergers and acquisitions a strong and prevalent growth strategy. With industry analysts forecasting the demand for premium wine to grow at 8% to 10% per year, many former non-rivals are now becoming a threat. Jug wine producers are entering the premium market and beer and spirit producers

Wine has been a part of Western history since the Neolithic Period (8,500-4,000 B.C.), when cultures first started to develop permanent communities, and stopped being nomadic hunter-gatherers (U. Penn, 2000). One of the earliest written records of the consumption of wine is recorded in the Bible and the impact of wine on Mediterranean cultures became more pronounced over the years as the geopolitical situation stabilized in the region under the Roman Empire. Roman Imperialism helped to spread the production of wine across most of the countries in the Empire, which included most of North Africa and Southern Europe (Britannica, 2000). During that same era, wine became ingrained in the Christian faith and is still used in Christian mass today. The close tie between wine and the Christian faith aided to the spread of wine production and wine consumption across Europe

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

Vincor International Inc. is in the business of selling premium wine to discerning wine drinkers. The company relies on its firm resources and capabilities from which it derives its distinctive competencies. These include the ability to produce market and distribute premium New World wines to a growing market of customers around the world. The total estimated world market is worth approximately $190 billion dollars (U.S.).

The top wine producing firms in the U.S include E&j Gallo Winery having around 22.3% market share, constellation brands inc. 17.4% market share and the wine group inc with 8.5% market share. The US wine industry faces competition from foreign producers such as france, spain and Italy being some of the top producers, accompanied by argentina, Australia, and Germany. Some of the industries top foreing competitors in wine-making include Gruppo Italiano Vini (Italy), Distell Group (South Africa), Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (France), and Viña

Historically, the French had been the dominant competitor in the global wine industry due to the low effect of the five forces of competition. The main barriers to entry that kept the threat of competitors low for the French were incumbency advantages, unequal access to distribution channels and restrictive government policies. This first barrier, incumbency advantages, can be explained by the domestic French Wine Industry in the late 18th to mid 19th century that was already supporting 1.5 million families for both the growing of grapes and other wine-related businesses. France already had a domestic market for the growth and cultivation of vineyards that was able to provide French producers with a steady supply of agricultural inputs.

The Robert Mondavi Winery became one of America’s most innovative, high-quality winemakers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There are over 1 million wine producers worldwide and no winery accounted for more than 1% of global retail sales. Because of this and the fact that there are many substitutes, there is an issue to try to gain economies of scale and become a leader in the wine market. Wine tends to stay it its local region, which makes it harder to compete with its substitutes. In the strategic analysis portion of this case analysis, we discuss Porter’s Five Forces and how they affect the Robert Mondavi Winery. We conclude that in order for the winery to stay

The United States wine industry is a 12 billion dollar industry and is composed of 7,000 wineries and around 1,800 different companies. The three major companies within the industry are Constellation brands, E&J Gallo, and The Wine Group Inc. The industry has made its way through the economic crisis at a better rate than some of the other U.S industries however in order for them to continue to see any type of growth it is important that they acknowledge their issues and find ways in which they can rectify them. The majority of the issues among the industry are problems that cannot be directly controlled by individual wine companies. Therefore it is imperative that wineries find away to use these issues to their

1. How did the French become the dominant competitors in the increasingly global wine industry for centuries? What sources of competitive advantage were they able to develop to support their exports? Where were they vulnerable?

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.

In the most recent years, domestic sales of wine has declined constantly. The wine consumption is becoming more occasional. This is partially due to an aggressive anti-alcohol campaign and driving restrictions set by the local government, but also facilitated by a lack of marketing strategy: the wine market is loosing touch with the youth (the average age of wine drinker is gone up from 35 to 55) and young people are getting more keen to beer or alcohol pops.