Continuity Supply Chain

Luxury Brands Buy Supply Chains to Ensure Meeting Demand

Why this business owner took control of the Missouri company that supplies his wine barrels to ensure supply chain continuity.
In the last six years, David Duncan has been on a buying spree. This Napa Valley-based winemaker and owner of Silver Oak Cellars hasn’t been splurging on fast cars or vacation homes, though.

He’s been buying up vines — close to 500 acres in Northern California and Oregon. It’s been a tough process, at times: He almost lost one site to a wealthy Chinese bidder. It was only when he raised his offer by $1 million that he clinched the sale at the last moment.

At the same time, Mr. Duncan also took full control of A&K Cooperage, now the Oak Cooperage, the barrel maker in Higbee, Mo., in which his family had long held a stake. These hefty acquisitions are central to his 50-year plan to future-proof the family business against a changing luxury marketplace.

As Mr. Duncan realized, this market faces what might seem an enviable problem: a surfeit of demand for its limited supply. The challenge the winery will face over the next decade is not marketing, or finding customers, but finding enough high-quality raw materials to sate the looming boom in demand.

Read entire article Luxury Brands Buy Supply Chains to Ensure Meeting Demand | Mark Ellwood | The New York Times

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