Though this article deals with excess wine, the concept could be applied in any industry. Find companies with excess inventory that you can rebrand and sell for a discount, without damaging the original brand. Win-win.
CNBC:
Sometimes opportunity knocks. Other times it requires a few cold calls.
Such is the case for wine distributor Kevin Mehra. Back in 2009, the Boston-based entrepreneur was looking for new wines to sell.
The staff of Ninety+ Cellars tastes all the wine it distributes, and often rejects batches that aren’t up to par.
So armed with “Wine Spectator” and “The Wine Advocate”, Mehra started cold calling wineries to see if any had extra wine to sell. He was pleasantly surprised.
“We were shocked at how many wineries had excess inventory,” Mehra said.
A short time later, Ninety+ Cellars was born. Under the concept, wineries bottle their excess wine, but put a Ninety+ Cellars label on it. Ninety+ then distributes and sells the wine at a discount of 25 percent to 70 percent off the typical source winery price.
Anonymity is the key. Many higher-end wineries don’t want to cheapen their brand by lowering the price of their wine. They also don’t want to cannibalize sales.
Photo by rogersmj.