Chinook Wines, of Prosser, Washington has a
problem most small business owners only dream of: the popularity of its
wines is so great that the owners, Kay Simon and Clay Mackey have difficulty
meeting demand. "If someone calls and says, ‘Hey, can you put away a case of
Merlot for me?’ I have to make sure that we allocate and record the purchase
in inventory." Chinook has to take great care in tracking its inventory so that it
doesn’t over-promise its limited supply. Over-promising and under-delivering would
damage the distribution networks that Clay and Kay have spent so much time cultivating.
Making wine is both a capital and labor intensive business.
Clay explains: "We have to store the wine for years before it
is bottled-and so it can be a long time before we realize
income from sales. We thought that by working for
ourselves we'd have more free time-it turns out we work
seven days a week growing grapes, producing wines and
managing retail operations-but, we love it. Time is
precious to us and anything we can do to save time in our
operations is great-I sure wouldn't mind having a little time
for fishing." Kay and Clay have to make the most of their
limited resources.
Like all wineries, Chinook Wines has to do a tremendous
amount of inventory tracking and reporting to federal and
state agencies. Federal requirements mandate that wineries
track every aspect of wine making for excise tax purposes.
Kay explains: "We have to account for every pound of
grapes that we use, as well as all of the bulk and bottled
wine that we produce. We have to submit a highly detailed
report every month! It used to be tremendously time
consuming to track all of this inventory." Microsoft
technology has helped Clay and Kay streamline many
aspects of their inventory tracking.
Software tracks fine wines and connoisseurs
During harvest season, Clay and Kay are working non-stop
to get their wines made. "We lose track of what day it is,"
says Kay. Chinook Wines depends on the ease-of-use and
reliability of Microsoft applications. Clay notes, "Microsoft
Access has made it much easier for us to track our inventory
and create the myriad of reports for the various state and
federal agencies. I simply enter the data once and then have
it pumped into all of the report templates that I have created
in Microsoft Excel. The integration between the Microsoft
Office products is really what matters to me because it saves
me time. We used to use WordPerfect, Lotus 123 and
Pagemaker-but it was never easy to get those programs to
work together. With Microsoft Office the integration is
seamless."
Windows 95 and Microsoft office for Windows 95 have built-
in fax support; Clay can fax his Microsoft Excel reports
directly from his computer using his fax modem, saving him
valuable time.
Tracking customer purchases is another important part of
inventory control. Clay notes: "We were looking at
purchasing an inventory management application specifically
designed for the wine industry-but it was nearly $10,000-
and that simply isn't in our budget. Instead, I have
customized a ready-made template that came with the
Microsoft Small Business Pack-and it works great."
Chinook can track its purchase transactions and use the
tracking information for financial and inventory reporting.
Recently, Chinook wines made the switch from Windows for
Workgroups to Windows 95. "Our transition was an easy
one," said Clay. "We made the entire move in one day.
There were no snags-everything works. We still have the
same peer-to-peer network and we share printers and our
fax modem without any problems-and we have increased
our functionality with Windows 95 and Microsoft Office for
`Windows 95." Chinook's MS-DOS-based applications made
the transition as well, preserving their initial software
investment. "We still use a MS-DOS-based accounting
package," says Clay, "it's easy and we've had it for a long
time. It runs great on Windows 95."
The tasting room at Chinook Wines provides visitors with a
remarkably personal experience. The bright tasting room is
in a farm house with wood floors. There is a warm, friendly
feel to the place. Clay and Kay greet guests and pour
glasses of their fine wines. "The tasting room is one of our
most important marketing opportunities-it really makes a
difference when people can meet the people who make the
wine," says Kay. Personal contacts are vital to Chinook-but
technology plays an important role as well.
Kay enters the names of visitors to the tasting room into a
Microsoft Access customer database. Kay exports the
names and addresses from the customer database and
merges them into a direct marketing piece in Microsoft
Word. A flier created in Microsoft Publisher finishes the
direct mail package. She explains, "The customer database
helps make our direct marketing more effective because it
allows us to identify customers who are the most responsive
such as those people who buy a case of wine on their first
visit. Microsoft Access makes it easy for us to track specific
wines our customers like, how much they purchased and
when they bought the wine. This has helped us target our
marketing efforts-and gets the most of our marketing
dollar," Kay explains.
Cultivating a bright future
With all their success, Clay and Kay like the size of their
business. "We really enjoy the hands-on process of making
wines and prefer to remain a small winery," says Kay. "A
visit to Chinook," wrote Chuck Hill in Tasting and Touring, "is
a must for serious wine lovers. The two owners are not only
charming and friendly but hold a wealth of knowledge about
all aspects of wine, both art and science." Their knowledge
of information technology is first-rate too.
For more information about Chinook Wines or for tour
arrangements please contact: Chinook Wines, P.O. Box
387, Prosser, Washington 99359, telephone: (509) 786-
2725.
Chinook Wines uses the following Microsoft Products
- Windows 95
- Office for Windows 95
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Schedule+
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Publisher
- The Small Business Pack
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