Scott Laboratories of Petaluma wins wine business supplier award for 2019
North Bay Business Journal selected Scott Laboratories for the supplier category in this year's Wine, Beer + Spirits Awards.
It is a wine industry distribution company, tracing its roots back to 1933. It is headquartered in Petaluma, California, with regional offices and warehouses throughout California and Oregon, and a Canadian headquarters in Ontario. The company is unique in its comprehensive product portfolio and capability to service the entirety of the North American wine industry.
The company utilizes its extensive bench of technical resources, including specialists in winemaking and production, as part of its product offering. The company also maintains close collaboration with universities and other industry-wide R&D programs to support the advancement of the wine industry and refine product application.
Company culture is rooted in core values that were established over 50 years ago – an uncompromising commitment to quality, customers, suppliers, employees, and the community. A bellwether to that culture is the average employee tenure, which remains at well over 10 years.
What is something about your company that people would be surprised to learn?
During Prohibition, UC Berkeley (UC Davis was not yet founded) kept a watchful eye over the state's yeast collection during this time, and prescribed cultures to both “home winemakers” and producers of sacramental wine.
Given the era was also the Great Depression and the school had a mandate to drive industry and employment, the university entrusted our industry's microbiological future to Scott Laboratories, both to sustain the collection and to bring independent innovation to winemaking and wine analysis. This yeast collection was the start of the company as we know it today.
How have requirements of your customers changed in the last five years and what has your company done to meet those requirements?
We've seen continued demand for innovation in the winemaking space, and this is truly what keeps us motivated. Winemakers are creative and like to experiment. We have a deep bench of R&D scientists and application specialists that listen to this feedback, and continue to develop new products specific to our market.
What are two or three projects your company is in the midst of or planning to begin within the next year?
The culture at Scott Labs is one of continuous improvement. For us, this means in our customer service, our product portfolio, and our ability to gain and share knowledge with our customers. Without giving anything away, we are always looking for new solutions that can help improve wine quality and propel the industry forward.
