Robert Mondavi and the Wine Industry

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

1) Evaluate the structure of the global wine industry? How and why is that structure changing? What threats do these changes present for Robert Mondavi?

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.

The most important necessary inputs for the production of wine are grapes, bottles and labor. Concerning the grapes, there is an outstanding difference between the traditional wine producing countries for example in Europe (the south of France, Spain, Italy and Southeastern Europe) and big wine factories that operate as oligopolies like in the US and Australia. Due to the bond to traditions and the higher demand for quality in Europe most of the wineries here still stick to the original way of producing wine, including the growth of the grapes on the land around the winery, a so called vertical integration (which is often considered by producers where the supplier's price is too high or the offer is insufficient, in our case this trend results rather in traditional and cultural values than in financial ones). This eliminates the percentage of dependence on agricultural suppliers significantly, whereas concerning a big wine company the negotiation power of the supplier is quite high. These wine companies tend to have a low sensitivity towards the price they are charged, as grapes are a crucial component of wine production. However, in both cases the price of the grapes is always

Chateau de Margaux is one of the world’s most renowned premium wine brands for many decades. Their wine offerings include only the first-growth and the second-growth wines. The company been profitable and is considered a very highly reputable and successful premium wine brand from the region of Bordeaux, France. Being successful and profitable often bring up questions like, how can the company do better? With the increasing demand for wine around the world and the increase of number in new wine producers around the world with exceptional potential, could the Chateau de Margaux still be competitive in the future? What are the possible ways for this company to expand and what are the pros and cons of each?

The Threat of New Entrants - High. Despite the high start-up costs, and that vineyards and wineries are a long term investment, it has not stopped people from joining the market. In 2006-2007, 12,000 new brands were introduced to the market. The number of imports in

However, Bonny Doon is vulnerable and reliant on its suppliers, as 80% of the firm’s grapes are bought from external growers. Bonny Doon requires unpopular grape varieties and grapes that meet high quality specifications (which decreases agricultural yields and creates a trade-off for growers). They need to develop long-term relationships with the growers to ensure uniformity and high production quality with respect to the firm’s key product input: grapes. On the other side of the value chain, the firm has preferred small-medium sized distributors for their product. This has enabled them to retain higher profits, despite selling wine in smaller quantities.

Vincor does market wine alternatives itself, as a way of dealing with substitute demand. Vincor makes cider and has a wine kit business division (Spagnols) that gives Vincor some product diversification. Partly because of the ease of competition and as part of the differentiation and protection of the Canadian wine industry, Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), a quality assurance program that identifies Canadian premium grape content, assists in making start-up more difficult for those wishing to emulate Canadian wine brands. The dollars spent on marketing and brand loyalty play a large part in protecting market share and there are certain absolute cost advantages that contribute to establishing some barriers to new competition. Ultimately, there is little cost to the consumer when considering switching brands. Experimentation in wine drinking is often a characteristic of the wine drinking market and thus can contribute to promoting new substitute entry into the market.

While bargaining power of buyers is ranked the least important of the five factors for Mondavi’s strategy, its importance should not be understated. One of the Wine is typically sold to wholesalers who then distribute to retail outlets. With the decreasing number of wholesalers and the consolidation of retailers, buyers negotiating power is increasing. It is difficult for companies like Mondavi to make consistent profits and maintain market share if they cannot keep products on retailers’ shelves.

Since Cork’d inception in February 2006, the company was designed for and by wine lovers. Time showed that this industry had such a demand that needed more dedication and that is when

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 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

While focusing on its premium and super-premium segments, Mondavi plans to introduce new wines within the segment. These wines are expected to compete with the wines from other countries such as France and Italy and are expected to have positive returns.

Chateau Margaux is one of the five first-growth Bordeaux wine producer; it and has one of the finest names of Bordeaux and the number of drinkers worldwide is growing through the years. Chateau Margaux’s wines are used by the connoisseurs and luxury consumers. They are facing an uncertain future, because of losing market to New World producers (such as California, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand) which have lower prices and more accessible flavours. Nowadays wine drinkers are changing tastes, which could cause a big problem.