Craig Winchell wrote:I believe I said before that the sweet spot is around $25/bottle average and 14,000 cases, at least at this time. This assumes purchased fruit and 100%distribution rather than direct sales ($12.50 per bottle return to the wine company). 14,000 cases at that price allows adequate pay to workers, with good salaries to winemaking and marketing teams, and good returns to investors, and more than enough marketing and sales budget to sell that much wine. Of course, one always hopes for full price direct sales, but it's a worst case scenario. It works out to around 25% profit on $2 Million in sales, after factoring in all costs. No wonder people like the wine biz. That's a nice, tiny winery by CA standards. Since it's an average, it allows wines below $20, and of course, above $30 or even way more. But it does mean making a concerted and continuous effort at sales. People like the Weiss boys do the micro production and high prices because they can have little investment and still make enough in distributions to make significant parnassa above their day jobs, but it doesn't pencil out for real investors who want regular cash flows generated from an initial investment, as well as capital appreciation. If I had had the investors, I'd have started from scratch doing things the right way. I had potential investors, but not enough money to do things right. Thus, the boobie prize of working for someone else. But it allowed me to identify a potential opportunity that could get me some semblance of independence.
its called amex
