BWU$20 Hits a Wall of Silence
I was trying to broaden our sources of samples for review, so I spoke with a few fine wine distributors. Actually, I wrote to them first, by email, telling them who we were and what we were about. I mentioned that we’re keen to promote smaller wineries and independent retailers, and more.
Silence. Of the deafening kind. I couldn’t work it out – surely these guys want their wines reviewed, don’t they? OK, so we’re a bit brutal with our reviews – one subscriber wrote in that he had never seen the term AVOID! In a wine review – but any publicity is good publicity, isn’t it?
Sesame opens
Not in this realm, it seems. I called these folks, had pleasant chats to them, then sent them more emails restating what we’re about. More silence. Called again, left phone messages but calls were not returned. One exception – I won’t mention names at this stage – the fellow wanted to meet with me. I was surprised. Pleasantly. At last I’d found someone who cared.
He came with his sales manager. Odd. We talked over coffee, and the problem revealed itself. I said I only approached ‘fine wine’ distributors because fine wine is all we’re interested in here at BWU$20. The SM said that they were in the business of building brands, and that most of their sales went into restaurants. Therefore it wasn’t in his interest to have his customers find out that they could buy the wines he sold them from a retailer at the same price point or lower.
I’m thinking: In this online world, there’s nowhere to hide – isn’t time you guys came to grips with that?
Wholesale Rejection
I received a similar response by email from another fine wine distributor based in Melbourne: ‘Our business focuses on the story of our producers rather than working towards a price point, and therefore we unfortunately have to decline your invitation to send in samples.’ That’s her story and I’m wondering how many more stories we have to write before people understand that BWU$20 is a great wine resource focused on consumers, the real world, and the wines we drink there.
After a phone call with another distributor, I began to understand the extent of the problem. He sent me a price list, and explained that the price I needed to focus on was the LUC – Landed Unit Cost. The LUC includes the government’s WET tax but not GST (or any kind of margin). So we were busy trying to figure out how that translates to retail pricing.
When I said our cut-off was $25 street price, he said we’re probably looking at $12 – 13 a bottle LUC. I saw right away that there were wines on the list with LUCs of $17 and $18 which we can buy for $25 or less. Then I saw Teusner’s Avatar 2012 with a LUC of $22.70, and this is a wine we can buy for $24.95.
Our interests are not aligned
These guys are trying to build brands, and we’re trying to tell people where they can buy these brands for the lowest price. Our interests are not aligned as we say in marketing. They don’t want their brands associated with terms like ‘lowest price, cheap or bargain.’ Do I understand that? Of course I do.
Teusner is an interesting example (and there are more): we’re already reviewing these wines, buying our own samples. In other words, distributors withholding samples doesn’t stop us flagging the lowest prices for their wines out there. Doesn’t stop us promoting them either, which we’ve certainly done with Kym Teusner’s wines.
Whereto now?
Another chat with another distie, and he has a clear issue with online merchants who cut prices to the bone. Eventually I work out that the fear and loathing is focused on those online merchants who discount pallet loads of grog that was left on a wharf somewhere or that some winery wants to get rid of because it’s past the use-by-date. Get Wines Direct, Wine market, Grays online … That’s another topic, which we’ve covered in another post: Online merchants – the good, bad and ugly.
I talked to the disties asking them to look for common ground – maybe there are lines they’d like more publicity for, maybe there are lines that fit with our model. A week later, we still hadn’t received a single sample from these guys so I rang my old friend Peter Bourne and asked his advice. He said ‘I’m not surprised the disties don’t want to play with you. Why don’t you approach the big wine companies – they’ll be happy to send you samples.
The Big Guys?
Only one problem with that: we’re trying to support the smaller wine makers and independent retailers. Some of them have sent us samples – Kemenys, WineDirect, Winelistaustralia – but most of them just don’t have the margin to do this on a regular basis. Thinking this through, we do need to cover the big guys since they produce some fine wines – from Leo Buring to Pewsey Vale, from Treasury Wine Estates to Yalumba. Then there’s de Bortoli and McWilliams.
I approached McWilliams first one since they have an interesting portfolio ranging from Margaret River to the Hunter Valley. Samples? No problem, mate, just tell us what you want and give us an address. Done. Pandora’s box? I have visions of a semi arriving at my front door – We’ll keep you posted.
Kim