Vintage Wine Distributors - Food and Drink - Schofield Media -Chicago

This year, Cleveland-based Vintage Wine Distributor celebrates its 35th anniversary with more than 250 brands of wine in its portfolio, offices in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and 15 percent annual growth. And like a fine wine, the company has only gotten better with age, President Casey Forbes says. The key to its success is simple, he notes.

“The fundamental difference between us and many of our competitors is our focus on customer service, which I know sounds trite,” Forbes admits. “Customer service is an easy phrase to talk about, but it’s not just a phrase out of a business school book. Customer service is a lifestyle. Customer service has to come from the heart.

“If somebody needs some wine that they know we’ve got, I’m going to get it to them when they need it and how they need it. During the 1980s and 1990s, just-in-time delivery was a popular phrase, and I was in shock because we have lived that since 1972. I thought, ‘What do you mean that’s a new concept? That’s just been a standard procedure in our business.’”

Forbes’ father, Jim Forbes, founded Vintage Wine Distributor with partner Gene Parrino. “My father had a rather extensive business background, and Gene had been in the retail wine business here in Cleveland for 28 years, so they had complementary skills,” Casey Forbes notes. “My dad knew business and Gene knew wine.”

He says the two got into the business at just the right time. After all, the early 1970s marked the beginning of the wine industry’s growing popularity and changes in consumer patterns. Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley vineyards were just getting started, and White Zinfandel had not even been invented yet.

When Vintage Wine Distributor was established, the company carried mostly French and German wines. Getting the wine safely to the company’s facilities was oftentimes a nightmare, Forbes says. “When we got started, shipping containers didn’t exist and shrink wrap didn’t exist,” he recalls.

“The wines would come in a pallet tied up. Cases would be broken and, for some reason, in every shipment, wines would be stolen somewhere along the line, and you wouldn’t ever lose the cheap stuff; it was always the expensive stuff. So, importing wine was an interesting adventure. Now, everything is shipped in containers. It’s safe and secure, and we haven’t lost anything in years.”

Setting the Tone
Forbes says another important change for the wine industry was when entrepreneurs began planting vineyards in California. Today, Napa Valley is considered the Mecca of the U.S. wine industry, whereby Jack Davies, founder of Schramsberg Vineyards, would be considered the prophet Muhammad. His was the first winery to come into Napa Valley since World War II. Soon, many other wineries followed.

“In our strategic plan, as a new distributor, we saw the opportunities that California brought to us, so we pursued as many California wineries as we could,” Forbes says. “That set the tone for our business, and it basically just grew from there.”

Another strategy for Vintage Wine Distributor was to service the entire state of Ohio, hence the two offices, Forbes says. This way, the company could be closer to its customers. “It’s very difficult to service any market from 100 miles away, let alone 200 miles away,” he adds.

As for clientele, “We are not servicing just one channel of distribution,” Forbes states. “We are servicing many channels of distribution.” Its 2,500 customers range include restaurants, country clubs, hotels, beverage stores, and regional and independent grocery stores.

What’s Ahead
Just as it did in the 1970s, Vintage Wine Distributor continues to watch industry trends and consumer patterns. “We need to be partners in profit with our customers,” Forbes explains. “Right now, with the cost of the euro at $1.42, the prices of European wines will be automatically inflated by 10 percent over what they were paying a year ago. That may take some of these European wines beyond a profitability point for our customers.”

He says the company’s diverse portfolio allows for more economical choices for its customers. “We have the flexibility to find wines from other areas like Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, India, California, Ohio, Oregon and Washington,” Forbes notes. “At some point, the economic cycle will turn and the euro will be cheaper by 20 percent, which will make the European wines more attractive. We will be able to take advantage of that flexibility.”

Another trend Forbes sees is the sophistication of the next generation of wine makers entering the industry. “Now, every wine maker has a bachelor’s or a master’s degree and knows the science of growing grapes and making wine,” he says. “The quality of wine worldwide has continued to improve making it a more pleasurable beverage to consume.”

For Vintage Wine Distributor, Forbes says the company’s latest strategy is to continue to grow, to service customers and to have fun. “There is no shortage of opportunities for us,” he asserts. “In vino veritas. That’s a Latin phrase you see in wineries. It means, ‘In wine there’s truth,’ and the corollary to that is, ‘In too much wine, there’s too much truth.’”

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