Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
68 Wines&Vines January 2015 2015 unified symposium compelled JFW to act now. Even with the re- bates, the company will spend about $13 mil- lion installing the rooftop panels. Then again, sustainability is one area where JFW is willing to spend money, with the philosophy it will pay for itself in the future. Machine harvesting and immigration Technology has also come a long way for mech- anized harvesting of wine grapes, according to Tigner, who says JFW has implemented me- chanical harvesting and optical sorting technol- ogy in parts of the 5.6 million-case company that includes more than 30 wine labels. (Read more about optical sorters on page 90.) "The machine-harvested fruit that comes off (our Pellenc mechanical harvesters) is spec- tacular," Tigner says. "It might be an invest- ment, but it's an investment for quality." He also plans to talk about the role of im- migrant labor and immigration reform, a topic important to many in agriculture, "On some of the slopes and for some of the vineyard trel- lises, you can't have a machine harvester." Supply and demand Foreign workers are not the only divisive topic facing the wine industry. Wines from overseas are having an effect on domestic wine sales as well. "Imports as a percentage of domestic consumption has been increasing, and I see that continuing," Tigner says, pointing to the diversified interests of the Millennial consumer. "If you just think about the number of (wine) suppliers, and how many imported products are coming in, the selection of wine is not nec- essarily unlimited, but almost." To that end, Jackson Family Wines has in- vested in overseas properties such as Château Lassègue in Bordeaux, France, and Hickinbo- tham in McLaren Vale, South Australia. In order to create brand loyalty, Jackson Family Wines focuses on tasting room experi- ences. The company also invests heavily in social media for certain brands. He said that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producer La Crema has 250,000 Facebook fans, but other JFW brands like Mt. Brave (starting price $75 per bottle) aren't driven by social media. "You could argue that for our luxury brands, it's about consumer or collector scarcity, not about social media awareness," Tigner said. "You don't have Harlan and Bond (Estates) and Grace Family (Vineyards) on Facebook. That's not what drives their business model. What drives their business model is a high level of quality and 100-point scores." Tigner says it's not that consumers who buy high-end wine aren't on Facebook, but that is not where they go to get information about wine. Exports Ten years ago, Tigner says JFW had 10 people working for the company's international sales department. In recent years that number has tripled as the company built teams in Asia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean that can deliver reliable information. The cost of entry to emerging markets such as China, Brazil and India is very high, he says, and education about U.S. and Canadian wine is minimal. • Enterprise Software Winemaking & Production Finance (GL, AP, AR, Inventory) Compliance DTC Solutions (POS, Club, eComm, Events & Loyalty) Reporting & BI • On-premise or Cloud • Integration Engine • Consulting & Implementation Services • Strategic, Fully Managed IT Services You know the effort it takes to succeed in this business... Do you have the technology? Vintegrate Winery Software The Grape-to-Glass Solution info@vintegrate.com 800 � 487 � 3363 2235 Mercury Way Suite 210 Santa Rosa, CA 95407 " in America we embrace imports....The labeling and regulations in these other countries are some- times cost-prohibitive." — Rick Tigner, president of Jackson Family Wines —from page 63