HESS COLLECTION WINERY

Founded: 1978

Based: Napa Valley, CA

Website: Hesscollection.com

KEY BENEFITS

During hot summer months, UPS Summer Solutions preserve sales and satisfaction

CASE STUDY

Along a winding, tree-lined road nestled in Napa Valley, California, Swiss entrepreneur Donald Hess first opened the Hess Collection Winery in 1978 and has expanded to more than 1,000 acres of vineyards. It’s easy to spend the afternoon taking a tour or enjoying the wine, food and impressive art collection. But what happens when you want to take the experience home with you?

UPS Cools Wine with Summer Solutions

SUMMER SHIPPING SOLUTION Shipping wine to consumers has always been a tough business, especially during summer months. “Wine and heat don’t mix,” says Bill Smith, shipping manager at the Hess Collection Winery. “It doesn’t matter how fast our customers get their wine, especially if it’s spoiled by the time it reaches them. If the wine goes bad – I have to replace it and that costs money.”

Heat-damaged wine tastes much older than it should and doesn’t have the original flavor or aroma. You can also tell

when the wine has been “cooked” because the cork has popped slightly out of the bottle. Simply, too much heat can turn a great bottle of vino into vinegar.

UPS Account Manager Chuck Eisen, who has worked in Napa Valley for 15 years, introduced a solution: temperature-controlled shipping. “Hess needed their wines delivered during the summer in a cool manner. Typically, wineries in Northern California hold their wine until October, and flood our system with orders. With this customized solution the wineries can ship all year. ”

UPS Account Manager Chuck Eisen UPS Account Manager Chuck Eisen UPS Account Manager Chuck Eisen

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From late spring to early fall, consumers can ship their favorite bottles of wine home using UPS Summer Solutions. “Customer needs, unlike wine, don’t age well,” Eisen said. “Customers don’t have to wait like they used to…now we can ship as they order.”

The shipments are routed onto refrigerated trailers and delivered to one of four UPS distribution centers around the country: Mesquite, Texas; Chicago; Parsippany, New Jersey or Jacksonville, Florida. As the wine travels through the hottest parts of the country, the temperature remains at a wine-friendly 55 degrees. Within a day after arriving at UPS facilities, wine orders are loaded onto those signature brown delivery trucks. “UPS drivers deliver the wine right to a customer’s front door, reducing the time it’s exposed to heat down to hours instead of several days,” Eisen said.

HAPPY CUSTOMERS ORDER MOREOnce orders are on the way, the Hess Winery shipping team can provide customers with tracking information using Quantum View Notify®. “If a customer calls looking for an order I can track it down within seconds – before it could take hours,” Smith said. “It really improves our relationship with the customer and if they’re happy – they order more wine.”

Smith and his shipping team use WorldShip® software to process daily orders. Every other month, they process 2,200 shipments for wine club members using batch processing – an automated system that eliminates processing each package manually. “It definitely saves time with printing labels and verifying addresses.” The system also retains a customer’s shipping history and makes the process even faster for return customers.

“We’ve been partners with UPS since 2007,” Smith said. “If they help make our customers happy with reliable deliveries – then everyone is happy.”

RETURN WHAT YOU TAKEThe Summer Solution also helps the winery reduce its carbon footprint. The Hess Collection delivers wines that speak to their natural origins using the philosophy “Nurture the land, and return what you take.” Each fall, grapes enter the winery to be crushed and the remaining

© 2013 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark and the color brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service America, Inc. All rights reserved.

“ UPS drivers deliver the wine

right to a customer’s front door,

reducing the time it’s exposed

to heat down to hours instead

of several days.”

Chuck Eisen, UPS Account Manager Napa Valley, California

grape is recycled back into the soil. Efforts are also made to winterize the vineyards to prevent erosion. All of the bottles are made with 60% or more recycled glass and the corks are biodegradable. A percentage of some of the wine sold at the winery is donated to 1% for the planet to support local environmental groups.

A view of the Hess Collection Winery Vineyard