KNIGHT FRANK
Leading the conversation in English viticulture, Knight Frank’ s free newsletter contains thought leadership and advice on acquisitions, disposals, investment and business growth. Here are some extracts from previous articles.
CREATING BRAND DISTINCTION IN THE MARKET
As industries begin to fill up with more producers, price becomes harder to defend. I expect we will see hard-earned, well-defined brand positions beginning to pay dividends. For those who have not etched out their niche, there is a higher risk that they will need to lower their prices to appear attractive from the consumer’ s perspective.
For those who have engineered their businesses to run on a low-cost base, this isn’ t necessarily a problem. However, for those who set up shop to sell mid-priced, mid-value traditional method sparkling wine made by contract winemakers, it is a real problem because there will be a price they cannot go below. They then must decide whether to keep putting more cash into the business or to sell up. If they do sell, they must just hope that others don’ t sell at the same time, or they will be entering a buyer’ s market.
STARTING WITH THE PLACE Placemaking is a concept that is often deployed in urban areas but is really sector agnostic.
The one common thing about great places is that they are filled with great people.
The concept of the Power of 10 + is that places thrive when people have many reasons to be there. These might include benches to sit on, wildflower meadows to walk through, music to enjoy and art to appreciate. The beauty of this is that it can be done inexpensively. It can cost as little as the price to buy and hang a swing that looks over your favourite view of the vines. It would cost you nothing to block out two car parking spaces and invite a charcuterie van to sell their meat from your vineyard. Acquiring new customers can be an expensive business, so if collaborating with complementary suppliers allows you to achieve the Power of 10 + and lower your customer acquisition cost then it is an opportunity worth exploring.
CHAPTER AND VERSE: TACKLING OUR NEXT BIG PROBLEMS
The greatest concentration of wineries are in South East England. To win a share of this market, differentiation will be imperative, but how do you validate the concept? The Entrepreneur Revolution by Daniel Priestley cautions against assuming your vision for the business will align directly with what the customer wants. Far better, Priestley argues, to create waiting lists for a concept that you have and invite customers to sign up to the waiting list if they would like to pre-register their interest. The number of people who join the waiting list gives you data on the demand for the idea and allows you to validate your potential investment cheaply.
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