How Broadland Wineries is setting the agenda for other bulk bottlers to follow
By Richard Siddle
Earlier this month we reflected on how the bulk wine industry was arguably the most disruptive channel and sector within the global wine industry. Today we turn the spotlight on a business that is, in its own way, demonstrating how far certain wine businesses have changed over the last 10 years, driven by the demand for better quality, bottled in market wines.
Broadland Wineries was first established over 50 years ago as one of the few third party bottling facilities in Europe. Based in the quiet outskirts of Norwich up near the UK’s Norfolk coast it was a company that kept itself largely to itself, known by its customers, but very much under the radar of the mainstream wine industry.
But its growth and development over the last 10 years has changed all that. A trajectory that has seen it grow 20% year-on-year since 2006 to become a £60m plus turnover business.
It is now bottling and handling over 25 million litres of wine a year from its BRC Grade AA+ winery facility, with a capacity to double that, if need be, in the coming years.
There are few wine businesses on the production side of the industry that can match those kind of figures. But it is the result of a clear strategy, led by chief executive, Mark Lansley, to take more control of its own supply chain by developing more of its own brands and wine ranges rather than rely on demand from third parties for it to bottle their wine.
Full service wine solution
It is now sourcing, shipping, bottling and handling wine from around 15 countries around the world. Rather than just bottle wine it is now capable of offering a full service wine solution where it can help create a brand, based on its own consumer research and insights, and then go out and get the right quality juice from long standing producer partners around the world.
Brands that it can either create for itself to market and bring to the right channels of the trade, or bespoke wines developed for its retail partners.
Crucially Broadland Wineries is focused on creating brands where there is a clear consumer demand. As well as ensuring it has the latest state-of-the-art bottling and bulk wine equipment it has also invested hugely in consumer insights, and the in-house skills to interpret the shopper as a whole, and not just through the prism of wine.
“You have to understand who your shopper is,” stresses Lansley. Only then can you start to think about creating wine brands they might want to buy.
By starting with the consumer and knowing how they shop and why, you have a lot more chance to “maximise profits” rather than base a new line on the fact you can access a few million litres of cheap Chilean Merlot.
Lansley does not see the changes he has helped make at Broadland Wineries as being that pioneering other than, in his eyes, taking all the steps necessary to make yourself as professional a business as possible. For him it is about “adding value at every stage of the process we are involved in”.
Which has meant transforming the workforce at Broadland Wineries. Whilst it still has its fair share of technicians and production staff, it can also boast a full team of data specialists, brand developers, and social media and marketing experts.
Simon Oastler, for example, joined Broadland Wineries as marketing director from TNS UK, the consumer shopping analysts.
International opportunities
It’s new brand focused and driven approach has meant Broadland has been able to move outside of its UK base and start to develop businesses in new markets. To date it has focused its efforts on the US and closer to home in Sweden. For now it is looking to develop either its own brands or work with local partners on developing new routes to market.
It has longer term ambitions to establish its own production and bottling facilities, but it is interesting that it is first using its own wine brands, and local sales teams, as a way in to new international markets. Again a position it would be hard to imagine it being in 10 years ago.
Lansley has been prepared to take the brave steps needed to grow and develop the business from its traditional bottling background. By expanding the company overseas it will not only help achieve its own targets for year-on-year growth, it is also part of the process of challenging itself to be a more professional and relevant business.
Already, for example, it has been able to build up a better understanding of the different wine consumers there are in markets such as the US and Sweden. How one style of wine, for example, is not suitable for all markets.
By following an international strategy, and operating in markets with different currencies, it is also better placed to cope with forthcoming changes that are inevitable post-Brexit.
But for all its changes and developments it is its core bottling skills that put Broadland Wineries in such a strong position. The ability to source the right wine from the most in demand markets, at the right time and price, gives it the foundation on which it can build the rest of its growing business.