from vineyard to warehouse to table: gourmet food & wine ... · a case study by magaya from...

A CASE STUDY BY MAGAYA

From Vineyard to Warehouse to Table: Gourmet Food & Wine DistributorsProviding Three Tiers of Service: Logistics, Importing and Distribution

AT A GLANCEhttp://www.gfwdistributor.com

3PL, Importer and Distributor

Solution | Commerce System

For any company, winning an award for a prod-uct or service is a good feeling. Winning four

awards at one event is cause to celebrate.

Gourmet Food & Wine Distributors brought home two Silver and two Gold medal awards from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America trade show and wine tasting competition in April 2016. The awards went to the following wines that Gour-met Food & Wine Distributors import and repre-sent in the US:

• Silver Medal Italy: 2012 Red Wine, I’Lasi fromVilla Canestrari Winery

• Silver Medal Spain: 2008 Red Wine, SuazoGaston from Zuazo Gaston Winery

• Double Gold Medal Spain: 2009 Red Wine,Mileto from Bodegas Alvia

• Gold Medal Spain: 2007 Red Wine,Livius from Bodegas Alvia Winery

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Case StudyGourmet Food & Wine Distributor

The awards illustrate the philosophy of Danny Hoyos, owner of Gourmet Food & Wine Distributors: “An open bottle is a sold bottle,” he said. Reading a wine description will give you an idea of where it’s from and what types of food it pairs well with, but there’s only one way to know what it’s really like - “Taste it,” he said. “That’s why we offer wine tastings at our customers’ sites.” His sales team brings bottles of different wines to their current and prospective customers’ restaurants, hotels, and retail outlets that have physical stores or online stores.

“Wine enthusiasts want to understand the wine and how the enol-ogist blends the grapes,” Mr. Hoyos said. “Does the winery use new technology or Old World methods of wine making? What’s the terroir – the climate, soil, rain and other environmental factors that influence the wine? Customers want to know.”

Mr. Hoyos has the knowledge and passion to answer their ques-tions and select the products he wants to import and distribute. When discussing why one bottle of wine costs more than another, Mr. Hoyos can explain how more expensive wine is made from older vines that do not yield a high production. “The aging is

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done in different grades of oak barrels, which affect the flavor of the wine and its price,” he said. Other elements include the type of bottle and capsule or cork.

Just as an optimized supply chain improves how the wine moves from origin to destination, Mr. Hoyos created and continues to fine-tune his importing and distribution business from the begin-ning by evaluating markets, products, and logistics.

Leveraging Logistics to Build a Commerce Business

“The supply chain is extremely important in the wine business,” Mr. Hoyos said. “Our wines are very competitively priced because our supply chain saves our customers money,” he said. “We direct-ly represent the wineries. By handling three tiers of service - logis-tics, importing and distribution – we keep our prices competitive.” The wine in his Miami warehouse took a long journey to arrive from France, Italy and other countries where Mr. Hoyos visits the vineyards himself.

Then Mr. Hoyos purchases items from his overseas suppliers, and his logistics company, Interglobal Logistics, handles the freight forwarding services for Gourmet Food & Wine.

Mr. Hoyos and his wife started their freight forwarding business in the late 1990’s in New York. When he and his family moved to Miami in 2002, they started using the Magaya Cargo System to manage freight and their warehouse.

Mr. Hoyos leverages his existing network of his international logistics business to represent the manufacturers and producers of the wine and olive oil. “In order to compete in the market, we decided that we needed to have a very high-quality product to offer at competitive pricing,” he said. “We combine our logistics knowledge to reduce costs of transportation, importing, and dis-tribution.”

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The Technology of Importing & Distributing Wine

An important part of the supply chain for an importer and a distribution center is the technology used to manage all the processes. When he started Gourmet Food & Wine, Mr. Hoyos decided to use the Magaya Commerce System for his importing and distribution business because it has the features he needs and because of his long-term relationship with Magaya.

“It was an easy choice for us to use Magaya software for the distribution company because we were already using Magaya for the logistics company. Since the interface is the same, we only had

to learn a few new features. We already knew how to navigate the program,” he said. “We have a very good relationship with Maga-ya. That helped launch our new business because we didn’t have to learn new software.”

When Mr. Hoyos purchases wine, his company creates purchase orders in their Magaya Commerce System. When the items arrive at the warehouse, a Warehouse Receipt is created in the system to assign the items to a location in the warehouse.

Because the wine business is highly regulated, it requires report-ing of specific information. Mr. Hoyos gathers and tracks that information in his software using custom documents such as the Commercial Invoice and in certain fields for reporting. They do a physical inventory weekly to ensure their inventory quantities are controlled.

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From Vineyard to Warehouse to Table: Gourmet Food & Wine Distributors

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2

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5Customers:

retail stores, hotels, restaurants

Sales Orders, Invoicing

Transport: via air/ocean/truck

International Transportation Documentation,

Commercial InvoicesOnline Tracking

Vineyards and Wineries:in Europe, South America & Australia

Purchase Orders, Landed Costs, Billing

Warehouse/DC: “Gourmet Food & Wine Distributors”

Warehouse Receipts,Nested Part Numbers,

Inventory Counting,P&L Reports

Distribution: Deliver wine to customers

POD

Warehousing & Distribution Center Best Practices for Quality and Service

The warehouse for Gourmet Food & Wine has two main areas: one for imported olive oil, and a temperature-controlled cooler for wine. Maintaining the proper temperature is just one of the factors that must be considered to ensure quality for a wine busi-ness. Small details matter such as knowing which bottles to store upside down to keep the cork moist which prevents air from entering the bottle and spoiling the wine.

The warehouse layout provides room near the shipping doors to unload containers or pallets quickly. To optimize moving the cases in and out of the warehouse, each rack is labeled to identify it in the physical warehouse and in the warehousing and inventory software. As pallets or cases arrive, the warehouse workers print Warehouse Receipt labels to place on the boxes. If Mr. Hoyos needs extra storage space, he partners with other trusted ware-housing providers. Many items are expedited in and out quickly. For the cargo that doesn’t come to their warehouse, his software’s tracking features give him visibility into the details.

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To speed up receipt and handling of items, Mr. Hoyos added information into the system for all the items, including cases and bottles inside the cases. That data is used in many transactions and reports, saving data entry time. The Commercial Invoice includes information Customs uses to classify products and determine duties such as quantity, country of origin, and contact information of the buyers and sellers.

“We can backorder items that our customers want,” Mr. Hoyos said. “We give them access to the online tracking that’s connected to our Magaya database. We send them order confirmations and delivery confirmations.”

Delivery methods differ for his commerce business than the transport handled by his freight forwarding company that uses large trucks that travel long distances. Mr. Hoyos said smaller de-livery vans have the advantage of maneuvering better in crowded city streets or busy parking lots of hotels and restaurants in places such as South Beach or downtown Miami.

Mr. Hoyos continues to analyze the market and how to expand his commerce business: “There are many small to medium companies in South Florida that open and close, and then a few large compa-nies that import and distribute. In order to compete in the market, we decided that we needed to have a very high-quality product to offer at competitive pricing. We combine our logistics knowledge to reduce costs of transportation, importing, and distribution.”

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from vineyard to warehouse to table: gourmet food & wine ... · a case study by magaya from...

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