Building Perennial Brands w/ Nick Ramkowsky, Vine Connections

02/22/24 • 28 min

In part 2 of our series with Nick Ramkowsky, Owner of Vine Connections, Nick describes how he builds brands in the US market, striving to turn “annual” brands into “perennial” ones. Partnering with distributors both directly and working independently with consistency helps create a virtuous cycle of long-term relationships. Nick also covers his interest in sake and how it overlaps with sales strategies for wine.

Detailed Show Notes:

Two types of brands

Perennials - brands where accounts grow in value each vintage; very few become this
Annuals - need to sell the same case to a new account each year; everything starts here

The goal is to build brands into perennials

Getting to perennials includes having value in the bottle, packaging (VC has three designers on staff), relationships (finding the right spots/customers for brands and supporting the accounts (staff trainings, consumer events)), identifying champions on the distributor sales team, and press

Creating brand value as an importer - consumers believe in the importer’s book through consistent producers and quality across the portfolio

Consistency helps develop brands

Marketing strategies to build distributor demand

Press (primarily critics)
Effective distributor work withs (distributors need confidence importer will support them)
Creating credibility in the marketplace (trade events, work withs, samples, incentive/launch programs)
Can’t outspend more prominent importers for incentives, need to create unique ones - e.g., one supplier affiliated w/ custom made shirts, created incentive around the shirts

Setting suggested retail price (“SRP”)

Through tasting, looking at the competitive set, and where the winery wants to be
$1 in home country becomes ~$3 at retail in US

Sales strategies

VC has ten salespeople across the US
Do work withs with distributors, but also on their own to not overwhelm distributor reps
Partner with reps, sending recaps for follow-up

Sake - started in 2002

He went to Japan to work in a brewery to study the process
Had to make more accessible - standardized back label, 1st to put English names on front labels
They use the same distribution network as wine
Place importance on education; VP of Sake Monica Samuels is a great educator
Now, 20% of the Japanese imported sake market
Recommends drinking sake from a wine glass, at cellar temp, or warmed to order for hot sake
Kome website is more focused on the style of sake (e.g., fruity/floral vs. round/rustic) vs. grade now
46 prefectures brew sake - lots of expression of place
Gluten and sulfite-free

Wine importing trends - people drinking less, but better (Gen Z - less alcohol, and non-alc drinks, believes they will look at wine more as they age; value premium products that are authentic, smaller, good stewards of land)

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Detailed Show Notes:

Two types of brands

Perennials - brands where accounts grow in value each vintage; very few become this
Annuals - need to sell the same case to a new account each year; everything starts here

The goal is to build brands into perennials

Creating brand value as an importer - consumers believe in the importer’s book through consistent producers and quality across the portfolio

Consistency helps develop brands

Marketing strategies to build distributor demand

Press (primarily critics)
Effective distributor work withs (distributors need confidence importer will support them)
Creating credibility in the marketplace (trade events, work withs, samples, incentive/launch programs)
Can’t outspend more prominent importers for incentives, need to create unique ones - e.g., one supplier affiliated w/ custom made shirts, created incentive around the shirts

Setting suggested retail price (“SRP”)

Through tasting, looking at the competitive set, and where the winery wants to be
$1 in home country becomes ~$3 at retail in US

Sales strategies

VC has ten salespeople across the US
Do work withs with distributors, but also on their own to not overwhelm distributor reps
Partner with reps, sending recaps for follow-up

Sake - started in 2002

He went to Japan to work in a brewery to study the process
Had to make more accessible - standardized back label, 1st to put English names on front labels
They use the same distribution network as wine
Place importance on education; VP of Sake Monica Samuels is a great educator
Now, 20% of the Japanese imported sake market
Recommends drinking sake from a wine glass, at cellar temp, or warmed to order for hot sake
Kome website is more focused on the style of sake (e.g., fruity/floral vs. round/rustic) vs. grade now
46 prefectures brew sake - lots of expression of place
Gluten and sulfite-free

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Exploring Regions w/ History but Little Recognition w/ Nick Ramkowsky, Vine Connections

After falling in love with wine through a year abroad in Burgundy in high school, Nick Ramkowsky, Owner of Vine Connections, has built a premium national importer of South American wines and sake. Nick discusses the types of wine importers in the US, how he thinks about building a brand portfolio, and the keys to success as an importer in part 1 of this 2-part series.

Detailed Show Notes:

Vine Connections

A national import and marketing company based in CA and has a retail license
Focus on regions with winemaking history but not globally recognized
Started as a broker and distributor (when Nick was 25)
Worked with Billington Imports and met Laura Catena, went to Argentina, and fell in love with wines
Established 1st premium portfolio of Argentine wines (1999-2000) - least expensive wine was $24 retail
2002 - imported sake
2013 - 1st premium Chilean wine portfolio
Has wholesalers in all 50 states, including RNDC (#2 in the US), Breakthru (#3), and other smaller ones
30 people today, from 2 originally
Split company in 2 - Kome Collective (Japanese), GeoVino (wines)

Types of wine importers

All importers are also distributors in their state
Sales Geography - can be state, regional, or national; Vine Connections is national for control over brands all the way through, exclusive for all 50 states, contracts w/ producers outline the responsibilities of importer and producer
Portfolio Focus - world or specialized; Vine Connections is specialized in S America and sake

Role of importer

Bring wines in, warehouse, sell to distributors, & work with sales teams to sell to various channels (on-premise, off-premise, chains)
Work with press, do consumer events, lots of training and education

Sourcing wines

Looks at people first, then property, and consistency in product and pricing
New wines don’t cannibalize the current portfolio
Complementary driven by a sense of place and identity, even if the same region, varietal, price point
Looking at expanding to more regions to take advantage of the distribution network
Originally specialized to have more of an identity as an importer
Optimal book size - has ~120 SKUs in portfolio vs. ~900 at some importers and ~10,000 for RNDC as a distributor; optimal size varies by business model (e.g., focused on chains vs. independent stores/restaurants)
More in not better - high cost to inventory and more challenging to prioritize

Pricing wines

In general, SRP is fixed, but each state is different (based on freight & tax differences, distributor margins (larger tend to work on lower margins), and retailer margins (some take less margin)

Selling wines

Used to self-distribute in CA, now uses wholesalers (couldn’t service all the accounts, wanted to focus on national sales)
Distributor salespeople don’t have time to focus on everything
Importer needs to generate interest in brands

Key elements for success

Find good partners - share the same philosophy (quality, value, consistency), support each other
Vine Connections doesn’t add new wineries often (only one new Chilean winery); only one winery left in 20+ years
$1M revenue/employee benchmark for success

Vine Connections differentiation - good communications, both in transfer and transparency (e.g., sales by state), consider Vine Connections an extension of the winery

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Next Episode

Taking Great Care of Wines w/ Shannon Coursey, Wilson Daniels

With a portfolio of luxury wineries, including Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Biondi Santi, Wilson Daniels has developed deep expertise in marketing luxury wines. With allocations, deep tracking of where wines go, and a heavy event schedule, Shannon Coursey, EVP of Sales & Marketing, describes how taking great care of the wines is critical.

Detailed Show Notes:

Wilson Daniels (“WD”) overview

Founded in 1978, they started as a domestic wine brokerage,
In 1979, they were asked to represent Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC) and became an importer
Represents 37 families with ~50 producers, ~1⁄3 France, ~1⁄3 Italy, ~1⁄3 New World
Owns distribution in 5 states
~35 sales managers, sells ~600k cases/year

Importer role

Curate portfolio
Distributor management - make sure strategy is executed
Create messaging with the wineries
Pricing - for WD, keep consistent around the country
Education
Channel mix - on/off premise, national accounts, chains
Work with press
Keeping wineries top of mind in trade - does a lot of events

Sourcing

Sources wineries with estate vineyards, some with the ability to scale (~1⁄3 of the portfolio), look for regions where they will not take away from existing producers
At optimal book size now, additions could be grower Champagne or 1-2 new Burgundy producers
Grew portfolio a lot in recent years - ~20/37 families added in last 8 years, ~10 in last 3 years (including Gaja, Faiveley)

Distributor management

With RNDC and Breakthru in ~50% of states
Create groups within the portfolio to help distributors
Manage pricing, inventory, programming (sometimes)
Does not allow wine closeouts, prefers to buy back
Fast Start program - incentives for new placements, not volume
Wholesale Manager Bonus - for distribution managers, often trip-based
Other support methods - ask to be on focus, market work, getting the producer in market

Marketing wines

Crafting messaging is critical, and some producers already know what they want (e.g., Gaja wants to be known as 4 different wineries)
Does a lot of grassroots marketing - events around the country at top restaurants, visibility of on-premise placements
A lot of trips to wineries
Iconic brands - taking care of the wine from start to finish, the allocation process is essential (~2⁄3 of brands are allocated)
Lesser known brands - more about visibility, messaging is critical, can target a broader base (e.g., use more social media)
Luxury - 3 key segments - sommeliers, collectors, critics
For larger brands, does some consumer marketing: e.g., Bisol Prosecco - did 15 city tours, wrapped an Alfa Romeo car in Bisol green, did press, consumer, and trade events; went from 7k cases (2015) to 120k cases (2024)

Process for building brands in the US

Create messaging
Education - WD wholesale team, WD national team, distributors
PR launch kit and sales kit
Identify channel mix, including target account list
Events (very different for each producer - e.g., vintage tastings for Biondi Santi, Faiveley; Gaja - white launch, Tuscan properties, Sicilian tasting)

Re-establishing brands that had poor marketing (e.g., Biondi Santi, Dal Forno)

Need to work through inventory in the gray market
Don’t lower prices to match the gray market
Make a splash on new vintage releases
Dal Forno - launches in the US 6 months before the rest of the world, helps reduce gray market activity

Private client group / direct-to-consumer