Grevillea Ridge Winery On Mornington Peninsula

Grevillea Ridge is a family operated winery on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.  Michelle and Marcus Albertino own the property, which includes 20 hectares of grape plantings and a cellar door which is open to the public.

Michelle and Marcus have been opening the cellar door to the public seven days per week. However, most of their cellar door sales are made on the weekend and they recently decided to close the cellar door on weekdays so that they could focus on building their clientele through online and telephone sales.

Marcus tends to the grapes and supervises wine production.  Michelle is responsible for all other winery operations.  She employs two staff to assist her. Michael D'Angelo is employed on a full time basis and Eloise Simmons is employed two days per week.

Customers who buy wine through the cellar door are encouraged to sign up to ‘Grevillea Ridge Wine Club’.  They receive monthly emails regarding new vintages and special offers.  Michelle and her team have also been marketing their wines to boutique wine stores.  They now have several wholesale business customers (wine retailers) who purchase at trade pricing. Grevillea Ridge’s traditional customer base has been Victoria.  Michelle sees the expansion into other states as a great marketing opportunity.

Michelle expects staff to make regular contact with customers on the marketing list as well as developing new wholesale business customers. In an effort to increase sales, she has recently decided to include a Monthly Offer in her marketing emails.  In February, she offered an extra 15% discount to all business retailers and in March she offered free delivery to all customers.

Michelle has asked you to analyse the sales data and write a report with regards to the sales and in particular the effectiveness of the recent campaigns and her efforts to increase sales outside of Victoria.  She realises there are other factors that may impact these results. Some of these issues should be outlined and considered before you make your recommendations to improve the business.

 A spreadsheet has been provided for you containing the data for sales during January, February and March.

The analysis, findings and recommendations which you prepare for Michelle and Marcus should be outlined in a professional business report.

This report should include:

• A brief Introductionthat outlines clearly the purpose of the report.
• A brief presentation of the analysis you have carried out of the data contained in the spreadsheet.  
• A discussion regarding the results of your analysis.
• Identification/discussion regarding other factorsthat may be affecting the results.  
• A short concluding summaryof the content of the report.
• Finally, at least two clear recommendationsthat Marcus and Michelle can adopt. These recommendations must be drawn from the analysis that you have carried out, and must have been discussed in the body of your report.

About Grevillea Ridge Winery

Grevillea Ridge Strategic Operations

Grevillea ridge is a wine company which is owned by Michelle and Marcus. The wine company is located in Victoria Mornington peninsula. The wine business is operated by the two family members, one permanent staff Michael D’Angelo and Eloise Simmons who works part time two days in a week .Grevillea has enough space for planting grapes which act as the raw materials for the wine. The grape plantation cover over 20 hectares of land. Since the family owns the land they have reduced their expenses of leasing land. The company has a cellar door which act as shop for the public. The business was at first opened to the public throughout the week in order to attract more customers and enhanced reliability by customers. Marcus and Michelle shared responsibility where Marcus was in charge of the wine production and tending to the grapes where Michelle handled the packaging and selling of the wine to the customers.

Due to the revolution of technology Michelle and Marcus saw an opportunity since they made more sales during the weekend, they decided to revolutionize their businesses and focus on online marketing and selling and providing support and after sales through the telephone. Most customer do shopping online hence the two family member saw an opportunity online since they could reach a wider market the same time minimize cost. The customer who came to buy through the cellar door were encouraged to sign up online to the Grevillea Ridge Wine. By signing up they received email notifications on specials offers and new product. The wine company has also ventured into other territory of marketing the wines to several boutique wine stores. Through their hard work they have gained several customers to add to their list especially the wine wholesalers who buy the wine from them at a trading price. The wine company now has regular customers and loyal customers who buy the wine often. With the strong customer base the company vision is to expand into other states since they only operate in Victoria.

Figure 1. The products of Grevillea ridge wines 

According to their sales the wine is the best seller since their business sat first specialized in the wine production. Their second best sale is the beer followed by RTDs and spirits. The company has regular customers who often buy on regular basis. Their customer include Broome Beer, Euro Bar, WA beer hall, Murphy suppliers, Beers of Asia, European tasters, Lager Bar, Thirsty Work and Outback Beers. Euro bar is their best customer who buy the wine regularly. The lager bar is the second best customer who buy beer, spirits and the wine. WA beer hall buys the least product .They only bought wine once followed by Broome Beer. Euro bought all the product which include beer, spirits, RTDs and the wine. Beer of Asia bought both wine and RTDs. The European Tasters bought both beer and RTDs. The lager Bar bought all the products except RTDs. Thirsty work bough both beer and RTDs. The outback Beers bough wine only and the Broome Beer bought only beer. The analysis indicated that some of their customer contrite on certain products like the Broome Beer and outback Beers. This means they only sell these products or they have other loyal suppliers of the products. Some products like the RTDs was not sold in bulk to some customers like the Beer of Asia. Most of the suppliers bought the products in bulk which is good for business. The wine company gave discounts to the wholesaler especially those who bought bulk products. 

Sales Data Analysis

Figure 2 .The figure represents the bulk products bought by the wholesale customers. 

Grevillea ridge should concentrate on online business so that they can widen their market. Marketing the products online will enable the company to expand and meet customers of from different places. This will also create a path for the business to venture into other states. Telephone call sales and marketing also enable them to offer after sales services where they can get feedback direct from the clients. This method will also make work easier for the customers to contact the business even when they are not close. The company should also offer free delivery of the products to the wholesalers to minimize their transportation cost. Minimizing the customer transportation cost will attract more customers due to this services. The company should continue with their seven day sales since some customers enjoy tasting the products before they use them hence this will provide the customers a place to come have a taste of what they are buying. The company should hire more employees as the business expand since they will be serving a bigger base of customers. Grevillea ridge should also advertise their business and their products in various strategic places to attract more customers and to build a strong brand. Building a brand will enable the business to stand out and get recognition from the customers.

Conclusion

Grevillea ridge is a business with strong roots since it is a family owned business. The company being a family business has minimized cost of leasing the land for the production of the wine. The company should take this as an advantage and invest the profit they get .They should invest the capital in advertising and marketing their products. They should also invest in research of their customers so that they can find new ways to beat the competitor and get a wider market. The company should continue offering discounts to the wholesalers or the customers who buy more goods.

This customer incentives will help them acquire a bigger market share. The company should hire more employees to enable them to provide quick services to their customers. They should continue emailing their customers and coming up with bonus programs and customer loyalty programs. Grevillea ridge should come up with other products which will attract more customers or that will target a certain group in the market, they should come up with operation strategies that will make them remain ahead of their rivals. The company has some strategic operations that has taken them this far and with the addition of the other strategies listed above they will surely get into deeper market share and get loyal customers. After getting a suitable client base they should now expand to other states and also enter the global market.