Disruption, and Inflation, and Recession, Oh My!
If there was a time in history to be vertically integrated, that time would be now. Producers on all levels struggle with rising costs; fuel, labor wages, and price inflation. It's happening now, (winery buyouts), as it's happened before. Just over a decade ago, small family owned wineries foreclosed and were bought out by "bigger guys"; including a winery I used to work at and now belonging to, Foley Family Estate. As smaller individually owned wineries get consumed by the feeding frenzy, we seek the silver lining within our fragmented market.
With inflation, comes recession. While it might seem like the ultimate doomsday (wasn’t that covid?) it’s part of economic life. We all experience ups and downs throughout our lifetime. Perhaps in business we were lucky enough in previous cycles to have such a long span without a recession. Will we experience something as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s or the Great Recession of 2008?
We are in a different place and time. In developed economies, wealthier consumers having money from past earnings and paying down debt, see alcohol as an affordable luxury; purchasing it regularly while shopping for food. Furthermore, we are ‘premium-i-zing’ alcoholic beverages, and where we drink it. It may become more likely to be consumed at home versus on-premise places like restaurants and bars during a recession.
So need not be in a state of negativity, let’s be thankful for who we are and where we are. Do what we can, where we can, when we can. I will cheers to that.
Sources: https://fortune.com/2022/05/28/recession-predictions-not-great-financial-crisis-experts-say/
Cheers,
Nicole Djobadze
Collaboration Wine Exports LLC