Scaling Wine Storage w/ Jeff Anthony and Jeff Smith, Vino Vault

XChateau Wine Podcast

The wine storage landscape has never been as dynamic as it is today. Primarily due to Vino Vault and its goal of “making wine collecting more enjoyable.” With six facilities today and the goal of getting to 40-50, Jeff Anthony, President & CEO, and Jeff Smith, Chief Wine Officer, describe how scale allows them to offer more products and services to customers. From a soon-to-be-launched marketplace to auction advisory, Vino Vault is taking wine storage to another level.

Detailed Show Notes:

Jeff Anthony (President & CEO) - wine enthusiast for 30 years, storage expert for 35 years (Iron Mountain)

Jeff Smith (Chief Wine Officer) - helped father catalog his wine collection and turned it into a business - Carte du Vin Wine Cellar Management and wine storage business that sold to Vino Vault

Vino Vault offerings

• 1st and foremost, a storage company
• Consulting for in-home cellars
• Logistics for wine moving
• Soon to launch a marketplace for storage customers to buy and sell wine
• Auction advisory (Jeff Smith’s role)

7 locations - 3 in LA, Dallas, Houston, NYC, Denver

Storage best practices - temp control, humidity control, security, racking

Wine Owners - proprietary software for full-service customers, can manage collection and schedule delivery

2 types of customers - private locker (~50%) and full service (~50%)

NYC is all full service, trying to get more people on full service

Supply chain and inflation have not impacted business as higher-end customers feel it less

Vino Vault differentiation - national reach, in 6 markets today, will be in 10 by early 2023

Scale benefits - can offer more products & services, can spread expertise and technology across a bigger business

M&A - goal is 40-50 locations, 80% North America, 20% Western Europe (UK), ~8-10 acquisitions / year

Storage market size - ~215-230 Facilities

• NA (US + Canada) - ~135-140 independent storage facilities
• W Europe - ~30-40
• Rest of the World - ~50

Auction services - 20 years dealing with all auction houses

• Handle all the logistics
• Advisory services are free to customers with no obligation
• Get paid a finder’s fee from auction houses

Marketplace

• Focused on the ~80% of wine to sell that is up to ~$100-125/bottle (vs. ~20% that is rare and collectible and should go to auction)
• The benefit is speed to market, and transactions can happen immediately vs. ~4 months for auctions
• Commissions are dramatically lower than auctions

Data insights - anecdotally seeing a move away from high-end Napa Cabs and Sine Qua Non

Wine tastings and events - host some at some facilities, building event space in the flagship LA store (The Wine Hotel)

Storage is a sticky business vs. online wine retail which is transient

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