STRATEGY W
ho wouldn’t want to work in the wine business? Wine is a product that people all around the world love, that is grounded in generations of expertise, and which plays a vital role in environmental stewardship and sustaining communities. I joined Accolade Wines, one of the largest wine companies in the world, after spending most of my career in fast-moving consumer goods; specifically The Coca-Cola Company in Europe, Asia and the US. We talk about ‘fast-moving consumer goods’ but nothing moves faster than the cycles of new product innovation in Asia, especially in Japan and China. Running country and commercial operations across the region grounded in me the need for intense consumer centricity, speed and constant innovation. That’s why, at Accolade, we like to act like a small start-up company, despite our scale. We sell 35 million cases of wine a year – the number one in the UK market and number two in Australia – with brands including Hardys, Echo Falls, Jam Shed, and Banrock Station. Intense customer focus So, what are we doing differently that is driving growth? First and foremost, we focus on our customers and our own people. To grow the category, we must challenge the norms in our industry – and to do that successfully, we need to understand our customers and have people who are passionate about delivering. There is so much potential, we need everyone to be in the right mind, body and spirit to bring their A-game, every day, to help our customers succeed. This is part culture, part operational. We start every meeting, every strategy, with a focus on the customer. The more we listen to customers, the more we understand their strategies and match them, and the more we win. That extends beyond product development to how we look in store and how we deliver on supply and customer service. That is why we measure supply chain excellence and customer service every day, and why we developed the Accolade Wines Commercial Academy, to train all our sales and commercial teams to achieve best in class delivery and to drive business growth. Simply put, it aims to drive to us to a place where we are the partner our customers want to engage with most. Constant innovation We have a shared interest in innovation to meet the constantly changing tastes and lifestyle of the shopper and consumer. Wine hasn’t always been the quickest to adapt and innovate, but we regard it as our responsibility to lead innovation across the category. Sustainability is key to that – there are many ways we can delight the consumer and make a positive impact on the planet. It means taking some risks and breaking some norms – especially as we move into new categories, new formats, and new propositions. Take zero- and low-alcohol products – a category neither beer nor wine took seriously until recently. Wine offerings haven’t exactly done the category any favours. Meanwhile, Budweiser got around to launching Bud Zero 38 years after Coke introduced Diet Coke and Coke Zero. We see a huge opportunity in low- and no-alcohol wine as technology improves, consumer preferences change, and policymakers make sometimes erratic decisions about how they tax our product. We are producing low- and even zero-alcohol wines that are great to drink. Hardys Zero, our first play in the zero-alcohol space, uses new technology that we
There are many ways we can delight the consumer and make a positive impact on the planet
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Ambition | BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY
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