‘Just start doing’: Jackson Family Wines CEO urges industry to make strides in social, environmental responsibility
Social responsibility that’s at the soul of a wine business can help its brands get noticed amid an expanding sea of competition for consumers’ palates and wallets, said the CEO of one of the largest U.S. vintners at an April 20 industry conference in Santa Rosa.
“My only advice to the people in this room and our own team is just start doing,” said Rick Tigner of Jackson Family Wines, keynote speaker at the North Bay Business Journal’s 23rd annual Wine Industry Conference.
“Even the small things … will make a difference over a decade. But don't wait for somebody else to lead the way. … Big companies, small companies, you can all participate in some of the things that we're doing.”
Tigner said this “pebble in the pond” approach to industry change, borrowing a proverb attributed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, can start with simply taking time to listen to employees with diverse backgrounds on how a winery can have social impact.
“Do not make this one person in a corner office with three other white employees determining what your (diversity, equity and inclusion) program is going to look like,” he said to the audience of more than 200 professionals at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country hotel.
Beyond the social-impact benefits, vintners need to act more urgently because of significant “headwinds” the industry faces, Tigner said.
One central concern: Consumers are getting mixed messages in the media and academia about the healthfulness of wine, and vintners as of December will be required to put nutritional labels on bottles bound for the European Union.
“As a winery executive, we can’t always talk about the benefits of health in wine,” Tigner said.
The U.S. Tax & Trade Bureau, which regulates the alcohol industry, in recent years has increased scrutiny of producers’ statements, particularly in marketing, about health benefits of their beverages.
After family, millennials rank health and wellness as their No. 2 value, according to Stanford Health.
A second headwind Tigner is concerned about is the continually expanding number of U.S. vintners (11,691 last year, up 3% annually) and wines for sale (about 150,000 stock-keeping units, or SKUs) vying for attention from a shrinking number of wholesalers (1,084, one-third the number in 1995).
Yet, he cited research that suggests consumer recall of brand names is limited: 13 brands for ages 21-34 (older Gen Z and younger millennials), 16 for ages 34-55 (older millennials and younger Gen X) and 21 for those older than 55 (older Gen X, boomers and “Silent Generation”).
This consolidation among wholesalers over the past three decades has led many smaller-scale vintners to pursue direct-to-consumer marketing, Tigner said.
“We're bypassing the distributor. We're going straight to the consumer with a relationship, whether it's marketing, social media communication, really trying to be authentic, because that's what consumers want to hear today,” he said.
Key to that authenticity among younger generations of consumers and workers is social and environmental responsibility, Tigner said.
The top executive pointed to the company’s “decade of change.” It’s the catchphrase for a strategic plan called “Rooted for Good.”
Launched in 2020, it expands upon environmental sustainability efforts undertaken in the preceding decades across an enterprise that includes more than three dozen wine brands including Kendall-Jackson, La Crema, Cardinale, Freemark Abbey, Arrowood and Siduri.
With about 1,800 employees, the company’s wineries produce roughly 6 million cases of wine made annually in the U.S., Australia, Chile, France, South Africa and, more recently, Canada. That level of production ranks the Santa Rosa-based company among the top 10 U.S. vintners, according to Wine Business Monthly.
Recent highlights of the company’s ongoing campaign include further cuts in its carbon footprint in packaging and supply chain. About a quarter of its footprint comes from packaging, and the company is in the midst of another round of transitioning to lighter-weight bottles for its Kendall-Jackson and La Crema brands, which make up an estimated five-sixths of total production. That shift reduced the packaging footprint by 3%.
Also, Jackson expanded its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, focusing on “belonging.”
“How do we bring in employees who have diverse backgrounds and make them feel like they're a part of our family -- not in the first year but on the first day, the first week, the first month, and then throughout their careers with us?” Tigner asked.
