What operational activities take place in a winery?
There’s a lot that goes on behind the bottle. From the painstaking process of harvesting grapes and producing high quality wines to hosting wine dinners. Here’s what a winery operations checklist might look like:
- Wine production and tastings
- Quality control
- Bottling, packaging and labelling
- Equipment maintenance
- Inventory management
- Menu development
- Compliance and record keeping
- Distribution, sales and marketing
- Staff management and training
- Table and floor plan management
- Customer engagement
- Budgeting, cost control and financial reporting
What roles and responsibilities would a Winery/Vineyard Manager have?
- Hiring, training and rostering staff
- Managing all staff – both front-of-house and back-of-house
- Updating menus
- Managing inventory
- Ensuring sales goals targets are met
- Promotion and marketing campaigns
- Implementing new systems and improving operations
Are there any Winery Management must-haves?
Are wineries profitable?
Wineries, like breweries, typically have several ways of generating revenue. The two main avenues are B2B (Business-to-business) and D2C (Direct to Consumer). Both require various operational factors, changes to systems, and varied income and logistics. Ensuring both are viable options promotes a healthy business from a bottomline standpoint.
Let’s break this down –
B2B Winery Revenue
When a winery sells directly to a business which could be a bottle shop, restaurant, event venues and more. This often comes with a cheaper price point due to wholesale or bulk options plus repeat orders generating a steady revenue stream for a winery.
D2C Winery Revenue
This is selling wine directly to an individual either via the tasting room, online, markets, dining options on premise and monthly memberships. Offering pairing options across a menu is a great way to promote and sell wines. This model can require more marketing and promotion strategies to keep revenue high.
4 tips to managing a successful winery
1. Create a business plan
All businesses need to start with a business plan and wineries are no exception to this rule. Mapping everything out to understand the now, next and later business needs creates a great roadmap for a successful business.Your winery business plan should include:- Summary
- How and why it started
- Team Structure
- Financials
- Timelines
- Marketing/Promotion Plan
- Legal assistance
- Systems required
2. Build a team
Hiring a mix of skills can be great when setting the business up from scratch as some people will wear multiple hats. Those with a passion or experience in grapes and wines is a good start.
3. Using a reliable online reservation platform
Implementing an online booking/reservation platform can help you plan your rosters, manage inventory and understand the total number of bookings by month, year and more. This also allows for you to fill seats ahead of time through email marketing we just mentioned.
This helps you create order and simplifies your reservations and seating plan for the best possible outcome. Reduce staff needing to answer the phone as all bookings can be pushed through the one system from an online booking form. With direct reservations you can save time, money and maybe even headaches.
4. Promote return visits
This is important to get right sooner rather than later as customers hold the cash! Providing great customer experiences every visit is crucial – this promotes word of mouth referrals and customers may add to their social media accounts to help you gain additional customers.
Once you have a list of customers, kicking off email marketing is a great way to get them coming back over and over again. You can share discounts, memberships, new menu items, special occasion acknowledgements and more. With Now Book It you can do exactly this by sending personalised emails to your database.
Implementing an online booking/reservation platform can help you plan your rosters, manage inventory and understand the total number of bookings by month, year and more. This also allows for you to fill seats ahead of time through email marketing we just mentioned.
This helps you create order and simplifies your reservations and seating plan for the best possible outcome. Reduce staff needing to answer the phone as all bookings can be pushed through the one system from an online booking form. With direct reservations you can save time, money and likely even headaches.
How to manage a winery and operations for growth
Lastly, it’s all about doing what you love – stop and smell the grapes in the vineyard, figure things out along the way all while aiming to stick to the business plan. Revisit your plan every 6 months as other aspects of the business unfolds, and it will if you are just starting off. Managing a winery is an exciting and rewarding way to promote wines. Paired with great systems, you’ll be clinking glasses in no time.
Looking to manage your own winery with success? Request a demo of Now Book It today.
