There are several millennials who dream to get indulged in the wine business but are hesitant to own a vineyard. Whenever the concern arises regarding how to start my own wine business or how to start my own champagne brand, it is important to note that there is no need to own a vineyard to launch a private-label wine company. Moreover, proprietors of private-label brands rarely have access to vineyards. Instead, entrepreneurs who are interested in starting their own wine label partner with vineyards in various regions to source the wine that will be bottled under their labels.
Custom bottle from wine glass bottle manufacturer with their own labels, or “private labels,” have been increasingly popular in recent years. The International Bulk Wine and Spirits Show estimates that private-label wine sales currently account for 10% of the total wine sales in the US. When thinking about how to create your own wine business, it is essential to know that a private wine label requires significant time and effort. Furthermore, starting a wine business successfully is only possible if the necessary measures are taken.
What Is The Private Label Wine Business
A private-label wine business is a Buyer’s Own Brand (BOB) enterprise that sources its wine from a supplier or vineyard that provides private-label wine service and then sells the wine under its own label.
When a winery sells its extra wine to a private label, everyone benefits. When you operate a private-label wine company, you can put all of your energy into advertising and promotion rather than worrying about making the wine itself.
There are a number of compelling benefits to creating your own wine label, but there are also some interesting challenges to consider.
Benefits of Private Label Wine Business
Some of the primary benefits of starting a private-label wine business have been mentioned below.
- Increase in Profitability
There is potential for increased profits when launching a wine label in the absence of an associated winery. The winemaking process is highly capital-intensive and fraught with uncertainty due to factors including unpredictable weather, labor shortages, and shifting customer preferences.
- Higher Adaptability
It’s beneficial to have the ability to modify the products or services in response to changes in market demand. The owner isn’t stuck with the grape varieties planted if consumer preferences shift.
- Saves time
It is easy to get up and running with one’s own private-label wine company much more quickly than to plant and tend a vineyard.
Challenges of Private Label Wine Business
Although it is beneficial to start a private-label wine business, there is a requirement of good capital to begin it. A lot is spent on marketing, packaging, and other business purposes.
Private-label wine can be produced and sold at a large discount and in a shorter amount of time compared to from-scratch wine. Investing in wine, labeling, and packaging from the get-go. Many excellent wineries with outstanding offerings are just waiting to be found. However, it takes time and may involve some dead ends to find ones with which you feel comfortable forming a long-term commercial partnership.
Why Consider Getting Into The Wine Industry?
As a result of shops and restaurants searching for new ways to raise income and margins while also developing distinctive brand identities, the private-label wine market is gaining steam. Having one’s own wine label without owning a winery can be an attractive option for entrepreneurs.
But private-label wines are becoming an especially prominent segment of the U.S. wine market, and there is a good reason for this trend: Starting a private-label wine business can raise revenues, increase profit margins, and assist in developing a distinctive brand identity that differentiates from the other businesses in the industry.
The revenue of the wine industry has been expanding at a consistent rate, and analysts anticipate that it will increase to $528.6 billion in 2025, which is a raise from its current level of $340.8 billion. These illuminating market insights demonstrate that the wine business is profitable, which makes this specialized market an excellent choice for a private-label wine company.
How To Start Your Own Wine Brand?
To get a detailed insight into how to start my own wine brand, it is important to follow the steps mentioned below.
Choose Your Business Model
Finding out what kind of legal entity the company will be is the first order to knowing how to start my own wine line. The distinct choice to choose from includes the sole proprietorship, the general partnership, the limited liability company, the C corporation, and the S corporation.
A lot of people are hesitant to step into the business world as a one-person show or a general partnership. Compared to alternate methods, this one is much easier and cheaper to implement. In general, getting into the wine business could be profitable if the owner or the partners of the firm understand the structure of the industry.
On the other hand, if you don’t currently own a winery, it’s more cost-effective to consider partnering with a winery to create your own brand than to acquire a vineyard. Because winery management, including plant servicing and winemaking, takes a lot of time and energy, it also needs a lot of experience to do it well. You can choose reliable, high-quality wineries, and then you can concentrate on brand building.
Research Your Niche Market and Your Competitors
It is important to do research on the kind of wine the ideal customers will enjoy. Consider the current market players and figure out what needs they aren’t meeting. To get a complete picture of customer behavior over the past five years, it’s best to plot it out graphically.
After figuring out the target audience and what would interest them, it is important to divert the focus to the distinct niches that can be covered effectively and quickly. Choosing the proper market segment is made easier with the help of product research.
Understand the Regulations and Register Your Business License
Beginning a career in the wine industry as whisky manufacturer is fraught with difficulties. Know exactly what regulations and standards have to be met.
If there is a need to ship the wine, for instance, it is important to get a bonded winery application and make sure to follow all the requirements for shipping, especially if it has to be sent to other states.
Keep in mind that it is forbidden to offer samples or taste tests of the wine at farmer’s markets if that is a part of the sales marketing strategy. The selling of alcohol, in some states, necessitates a separate license, and sales tax is required. A wholesale license may also be required.
While it may seem like a lot of work up front, doing what is needed to keep the business on the up is both ethical and practical. Getting in touch with the state’s Secretary of State office or alcohol licensing agency is a good first step. Those groups can provide assistance by providing an up-to-date requirements and rules checklist.
Set Up Your Supply Network and Create Your Brand
It is the choice of the business owner whether to find a private-label wine vendor or work with a reliable agent to source the wine to make connections and create agreements with trusted winemakers and suppliers. Pick a vendor by the type and quality of wine the business would prefer to offer (based on the area of expertise) and whether there is a preference to create a private-label wine from a specific source. Moreover, one can also ensure whether the company offers all the necessary services to manage a successful private wine label business.
The most important thing to be aware of is that selecting the correct distributor is a critical decision and should be taken care of after good research. A good selection will provide an entire lifetime of tranquility to the business. However, a wrong choice will gradually lead to its downfall.
To ensure that the best distributor is being chosen, take time to compare different suppliers available for a certain area or region. One of the easiest ways to find out is to inquire about what their experience, knowledge, and thoughts are about the business five years from now in terms of coverage and volume. This will help to determine if expectations are in line and if this is the right partner for the future.
Certain brands prefer to give each distributor a single-page survey to complete. It’s all about finding the “right fit” and the answers to some significant questions could assist in the selection process. Meeting distributors and selecting the best one won’t be done in a single day.
After creating the brand identity and other elements, and then conducting research on suppliers to find the best, top-quality wine producer that provides private labeling, the next step is designing. Once the design of the logo and brand has been created it can be utilized as the brand’s identity throughout the entire business including social media, eCommerce store branding, and wine packaging everywhere.
The goal is to establish a profitable private-label wine company on the most effective selling channel which can be a web-based storefront for eCommerce or a website. There are other selling channels to help in establishing brand recognition which include not only farmer’s markets and wine exhibits, but also social media, and wholesale deals for local wineries, luxurious food stores, and restaurants.
Select a Well-Designed Wine Bottle for Your Brand
Glass wine bottles can be found in a number of hues, including green, brown, and transparent. An outsider looking in might assume that a winemaker’s preference would be the deciding factor in the wine’s hue, however, this is not always the case. When deciding on wine bottle color, winemakers will take a number of aspects into account.
One must strike a balance between consumer expectations, such as the use of classic European bottling concepts, and the best practices in aesthetics (packaging), such as whether or not to showcase the wine color and the required amount of UV protection.
- Marketing
Aesthetics, design, and packaging are all factors that can influence someone’s preference for a certain glass color. Some vintners select bottles because they like the color palettes or because the bottle’s presentation works well with their marketing strategy. Even blue bottles appear on occasion. The marketing department is mainly responsible for this decision.
There’s a possibility that flint/clear bottles fall into this category, as one of the marketing goals for wine bottles is to showcase the wine’s color. The wine industry relies heavily on presentation and sales, therefore this is something to consider.
- The Quality of Wine
The most crucial factor in deciding which wine glass to use is protecting the quality of the wine. One must decide between a dark bottle color that offers UV protection and a clear bottle that shows off the wine’s color. Sunlight and fluorescent lighting can have a negative effect on wine, and even an hour of direct sunlight can cause odd flavors, often known as “lightstruck flavors,” to develop in the wine.
- Colored Glass That Looks Like Amber
The best protection can be found in amber/brown glass, which is rarely used outside of the Rhine region in Germany. One may expect to see a lot more bottles like this if winemakers always made their choice based on the glass that best preserves their wine. It’s clear that marketing and other variables can exert considerable influence on winemaking choices.
- Flint/Transparent glass
The hardest part is finding glasses that will show off the subtle hues of the wine when using flint or clear. The color of a Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio should be seen through a flint or clear glass. Since even brief contact with sunlight can ruin the wine, especially white wine or sparkling wine, proper care should be used when using flint/clear glass.
Design a Custom Label for Your Glass Wine Bottle
The wine label is the initial point of contact between the seller and the potential buyer. In order to effectively convey the brand and provide the buyer with the information they need to make a purchasing decision, the label design must be top-notch. The wine bottle label, whether it’s for sale in a grocery store or online, needs to be able to grab the attention of a potential buyer and highlight the brand’s values quickly and clearly.
- Paper choice
A wine label’s chosen paper should reflect the values the company strives to instill in its target market. There are several options to create a high-quality and environmentally-friendly label for the brand.
- Uncoated, Printed, and Embossed
First-choice papers are distinguished by their superb porosity and scratchy feel, both of which convey quality and luxury and make them ideal for labeling a bottle of wine. Because of the paper’s absorbency, printed colors on uncoated or non-metallized media will look less vibrant than they would on coated or metallic media.
- Glossy papers
An attractive wine label design features a four-color graphic, this type of paper was developed with color saturation in mind. It is also quite cost-effective. They work great for both inkjet and thermal transfer printing, and their smooth, flat surface makes them ideal for vintage wine labels.
- Metal-coated paper
They are the finest option when the business prefers to glamorize a label with a silvery or golden metallic They come in both glossy and opaque varieties. Moreover, the colors printed on top have a tendency to metalize themselves, therefore, silver metallic paper is a good place to start. This means one can get colors like gold, copper, platinum, and more on their labels.
- Pamphlets that have been treated to prevent pulping
Wine label papers from the past are also available in an “Anti-pulp” kind. The term papers that have been treated to prevent pulping describe those that have been treated with additives that make them more resistant to dampness and cold.
- Barrier papers
The barrier papers mainly have a plastic barrier put to their surface (essentially 20 microns of polythene) to make them more stiff and resistant to moisture, making them ideal for use in the refrigerator or the freezer. The sparkling wine or rosé must be stored in a bucket without the label peeling off within a few minutes. It is for such wine types that barrier papers can create great labels.
- Environmentally Friendly & Sustainable Papers
Several paper factories have sprung up in recent years to develop novel ecological materials in response to the growing concern for the environmental impact of wine labels. Wine label papers that advocate for reforestation do exist. Paper is created from a variety of plant fibers including sugar cane, flax, hemp, and cotton. Alternative materials, such as stone paper made from marble and stone manufacturing waste dust, have also been searched for.
Build a Sales Channel Strategy
To expand the wine’s reach beyond the present market, several marketing strategies can be adopted. Moreover, it is quite efficient to leverage the considerable influence of social media. Sales can be increased with the help of a well-thought-out distribution strategy and wine brand promotion techniques. This means that the best method to achieve success is to track the distribution channels through which the wines will be sold.
Identifying the distribution points is crucial in the wine business. Specifically, it will aid in accomplishing the measurable aims and objectives. As a result, it will be easy to target consumers more effectively. Moreover, there are stores that are part of a larger chain that carries a wide variety of goods.
- Wine Exhibitions
The business can get active leads from wine exhibitions. Exposure in the market and, with any luck, in front of the right buyers are significant things to expect from participating in a wine trade show.
- Awards & Competitions
Frequently, there are subsequent award events to which purchasers are invited after a competition has concluded. Nearly thirty percent of purchasers consult prominent ratings and websites. Importers and distributors will reach out to the producers of highly rated and best-buy wines. If a winery is interested in creating private label wine labels, they can provide the option of private label packaging to their customers or approach major retailers directly. This can also be used as a springboard to introduce the brand to a distributor and gauge interest in possible distribution.
- Using Social Media
The use of social media is crucial. For one thing, it allows for unmediated interaction with consumers. As a result, numerous businesses employ this method of promotion, positioning, feedback gathering, and brand fervor improvement. Remember, though, that social networking takes time and constant maintenance. So, if the social media accounts are not up-to-date, the product will fall in sales and market value.
- Maintaining a website of your own
Use the business website as a sales tool. Make sure the trade area stands out clearly and displays the current distribution. Have a lead-gathering contact form with unique taglines. Furthermore, ensure that the website will attract distributors who are interested in learning more about the business. Furthermore, research what goes into making a wine trade-specific website.
- Cold Calling
Cold calling is the practice of contacting a potential client without any prior relationship with them by either email or telephone.
- Brokers and Advertising Agencies
Working with a sales and marketing firm or broker can multiply the efforts in the marketplace. To expand their wine distribution, wineries can use the wine brokers directory to find and get in touch with appropriate brokers.
Keep Marketing
When everything is sorted, it’s time to begin selling the brand to consumers. It is essential to have an online presence that includes a professional website as well as social media platforms in order to engage with the clients and raise awareness of the company.
Using persuasive marketing copy will enable the business to outreach its wine products to a wider audience. Utilize the marketing and promotion capabilities of social media to cultivate a cult brand presence or fan base, or make use of unique niches and lifestyle bloggers to spread the word about the wine goods among the target market.
Conclusion
The work involved in establishing a successful private-label wine brand is difficult but ultimately rewarding. A potentially lucrative business opportunity can be found in the curation of one’s own private collection of premium wines. Mastering the fundamentals of running a private-label wine brand is a vital first step. This includes learning how to design and create bespoke wine packaging, as well as marketing the wines to restaurants, hotels, and wholesale distributors.
Once you have started an amazing business, the next step is to contact a reliable wine bottle manufacturer like Roetell for your packaging needs.
