Bottled Up
Profile
By Brooke Knudson   
Tuesday, 01 May 2007
smc In just 13 years, Vintner's Cellar Franchising has developed into one of North America's leading winemaking franchises.
Vintner’s Cellar depends on good word-of-mouth to attract customers and new store owners. “Franchising is like a mushroom,” Eccles asserts. “Eventually new stores start to develop from the existing ones.”
When Vintner’s Cellar Franchising Inc. founder and CEO David Eccles Sr. popped the cork on his winemaking business in 1994, it needed little room to breathe before becoming one of the fastest-growing companies of its kind in the United States.

A self-described “wine novice,” Eccles’ passion for winemaking began as hobby. Eventually, Eccles decided to transform the hobby into a business and in 1993 started selling wine kits to consumers out of a small store in Canada. One year later, he grew the business into a winemaking store and established Vintner’s Cellar Franchising. Each franchise specializes in custom winemaking. Faced with plenty of competition in Canada, Eccles decided to expand into the United States.

“This business has exploded in Canada and it got to the point where, in less than five years, there were over 900 stores competing,” Eccles explains. “Needless to say, the market was becoming saturated and the next likely step was to come to the U.S.”

In 2000, Eccles relocated to Grand Blanc, Mich., and opened the first U.S. Vintner’s Cellar. “In the course of the last few years, it has gone from a corporate store to a full-blown franchise with 31 locations in 18 states across the U.S.,” Eccles says. Today, Eccles’ son, Michael Eccles, operates the Canadian headquarters in Woodbridge, Ontario, and oversees 17 franchises in Canada.

The Right Mix
The process of making wine at each location requires few ingredients, but Vintner’s Cellar assures that each product is of the highest quality. According to Eccles, 75 percent of the product comes from California vineyards and the remainder from areas such as Chile and South Africa. Vintner’s Cellar works closely with six suppliers who locate the best-quality grapes at the optimal harvest time.

Each 2,000-square-foot location sports what he describes as an upscale and friendly atmosphere. The front of each store resembles a boutique with a wine bar and wine retail accessories on display. In the back of the store is where the manufacturing process takes place. Wine is produced in six-gallon glass bottles for the individual consumer and between 75- and 200-gallon, stainless steel vats for retail production to sell in its stores and in restaurants, taverns and hotels. Each facility also holds an automatic bottler that corks each bottle individually, with the ability to produce between 5,000 and 8,000 bottles per month.

The winemaking experience lets the customer choose – and in states where it’s legal – mix the juices and yeast, and then bottle, label and cork the wine for fermentation. During the fermentation process, which takes between six and eight weeks, the bottles are stored on site.

Vintner’s Cellar is so sure of the quality of its product that it guarantees it. “This is only going to work if people are satisfied with the product,” Eccles says. “We guarantee people will like our product or they get their money back.”

Top-notch Training
Vintner’s Cellar knows its success lies in the hands of its franchises, and invests heavily in training each franchisee. Initially, for each new location, Eccles and his brand development team would travel to the site for training. But after five years of long trips and training sessions, Eccles built a training facility for U.S. franchisees at its headquarters.

“We literally trained all the franchisees at their locations,” Eccles recalls. “We were growing so fast that the next logical move was to establish a training facility.”

The 5,000-square-foot, $1 million facility opened in 2006. The training center mimics the layout and atmosphere of each franchise where trainees complete 80 hours of classroom and hands-on training.

Each trainee is schooled on the proper wine handling, storage and fermentation techniques as well as operations and quality control standards.

Plans for Growth
Vintner’s Cellar depends on good word-of-mouth to attract customers and new store owners. “Franchising is like a mushroom,” Eccles asserts. “Eventually new stores start to develop from the existing ones.”

Each franchise is placed in middle- to upper-class communities with a minimum population draw of 70,000 people, Eccles notes. “When potential franchisees come to us we look for one specific ingredient and that’s personality,” Eccles. “I tell people that we’re in the entertainment business.”

With little competition in the United States, Eccles expects significant growth in the coming months. “We’ve doubled in the last year and we’ll easily double or triple in the next 18 months,” he adds.

As the company expands its reach, Eccles expects its target market to shift. “The target market is changing rapidly”, he says. “The age groups are dropping very quickly. Initially the customer base was the 45- to 65-year-old, now it’s dropping to include the younger generation. In the U.S., people are looking for the pride in being involved in the custom wine making process and developing a quality product.”
 
< Previous Story   Next Story >