[The current favorite for our next Stormhoek cartoon label. Every person in the trade that I’ve shown it to has loved it. Very cool.]
After an extremely busy 2006, and an even busier 2007 [so far], I briefly harbored what now seems like an insane idea- that once I got back from my Stormhoek Road Trip, I would take some time off. You know, maybe go down to the South of France and visit Sigurd for a while, and just generally chill out by the pool or whatever.
No such luck. Looks like the next month is going to be a busy one. There’s SO MUCH left to do.
My new Stormhoek mantra is “Customer Engagement”. I’m in the wine business, and it seems to me that if I want to be able to afford rent next month, I need to figure out clever ways to ship wine cases. Stormhoek is an outstanding product, and we seem to have have good relationships with all the big supermarkets, which drive well over 60% of the UK wine trade. Where I see the opportunity to grow the business is in the intensity with which we engage with the average supermarket shopper. There’s many ways to skin this- everything from more road trips, sponsoring more blog dinner to yes, the label on the bottle. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the ordinary Brit pushing a shopping trolley, and giving her what she wants. Everything else is secondary.
For all the fun and buzz of the road trip, what I personally got most from it was an amazing and deep first-hand experience of supermarkets. I sincerely believe that this will prove invaluable to me down the road.
