Wine supply chain breaks: New Zealand wines from Cottesbrook, Canterbury

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the fragile link between a medium sized New Zealand wine business and a major overseas supermarket chain, and how a smaller business can survive market disappointments such as reduced supply contracts.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study is built on semi‐structured interviews with key informants, previous experiences, observations, documentary and web resources, combined in a process of triangulation to optimize reliability and content validity.

Findings

Establishing a successful long distance supply chain for a New Zealand wine does not guarantee long term business success. When that success was threatened by the supermarket reducing its order unilaterally the company concerned responded by restructuring its business operations to overcome a performance gap. A further chain has been developed to another UK based supermarket chain, ASDA, to move bulk wine and significant inroads have been made into the US market place through Total Wine & More, a US distributor/retailer. Long term relationships played key parts in all these developments. Establishing and maintaining customer contact and loyalty through regular interpersonal contact and close monitoring of the supply situation has had a central role.

Research limitations/implications

This is only a single case of a Canterbury, New Zealand, enterprise, but it corroborates Beverland and Lindgreen's research, which examined the evolving patterns of relationships over time among New Zealand wineries, importers, retailers and customers.

Practical implications

This paper highlights the value of investing in and maintaining long term business relationships.

Originality/value

Previous articles have described the establishment of the original chain with Tesco. This one reviews how that chain has been rescued and other chains developed as part of a strategy of not “having all one's eggs in one basket”. The major innovation for this exporter has been gaining satisfactory access to the US market. Together with his UK chains this now provides assured markets for the majority of his production of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, by far the most important New Zealand varietal wine produced.

Citation

Tipples, R. (2010), "Wine supply chain breaks: New Zealand wines from Cottesbrook, Canterbury", International Journal of Wine Business Research, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 148-163. https://doi.org/10.1108/17511061011061711