Cribari Revamps Its Packaging : Wine Without Mystique

A plane loaded with what looked like flattened milk cartons arrived from Japan last week at Guild Wineries & Distilleries’ plant in Lodi, Calif., where they were immediately folded into boxes and filled with Cribari wine.

The 1.5-liter carton may be new to the marketing of wine in the United States, but Japanese consumers have been buying sake in cartons for more than a decade, said Gerard M. Pasterick, Guild’s president. More than a fourth of all the rice wine sold in Japan comes in cartons, he said.

The new packs, one-third lighter than glass and fitting handily on those narrow shelves lining refrigerator doors, represent Guild’s latest move to revive sales of its Cribari brand, whose sales peaked in 1983 but have been falling since--a fate shared by its competitors in the low end of the wine market.

“The popular-priced end of the business has, frankly, been struggling for the last three or four years, though we are starting to see some strong growth movement,” Pasterick said in an interview.

Since Pasterick joined Guild two years ago from Sonoma Vineyards, the cooperative has rebounded from a $15-million loss in fiscal 1985 to nearly a $1-million profit in the year ended June 30, with sales approaching

$70 million, up 15%.

Cribari accounted for about 40% of sales and Cook’s sparkling wines another 30%. The balance was made up by Guild’s other brands, which include Roma and Vintner’s Choice generic wines, Cribari varietals and Cresta Blanca premium wine, Quinn’s Cooler, Guild brandy and Silverado (a wine-based vodka).

Cribari’s new “Easy-Pour Winepack” is not Guild’s only innovative packaging: Vintner’s Choice is being marketed now in 3-liter and 4-liter plastic jugs, which Pasterick said results in a lighter package and lower costs, making the product more competitive.

Recruited with a mandate “to turn the company around,” as Pasterick put it, he took aim first at the obvious: drab packaging, flagging quality and excessive overhead. “It was in almost a self-destruct mode--losing market share and sales volume--and we lost a lot of money,” he said.

Some layoffs, refinancing and consolidation--including abandonment of its leased headquarters in San Francisco after 17 years in favor of less costly Lodi--resulted in annual savings of $3.5 million. Winery workers agreed to cost-saving concessions. Guild’s grower members were persuaded to upgrade their vineyards, and wine makers were given more control over blending to produce cleaner, fresher and crisper wines.

“It was really getting back to basics,” Pasterick said. “Everybody has made a contribution.”

Guild’s campaign to recover market share--it ranks third in the nation in terms of capacity, after Modesto-based E. & J. Gallo and New York-based Seagram Wine Co., but its Cribari brand ranks 10th in sales--hinges on wooing novice wine drinkers, some of whom may be moving from soda pop to the phenomenally successful new coolers blended from citrus juices and cheap wine. The popular coolers, Pasterick suggested, will make wine more accessible to consumers put off or intimidated by ritual and what he called “the mystique” of wine drinking.

‘Familiar Package’

“We have to take some of that ‘pomp and circumstance’ out and, as a country, accept wine as a food,” Pasterick said. “Wine basically is a food. We want folks to take a glass of wine with their hamburgers or their tuna-salad or chicken-salad sandwiches.”

The new wine carton fits into this strategy by offering consumers “a familiar package”--the milk carton--that is also easy to handle.

The carton made a well-received debut in selected Western markets starting July 11. “We found an incredible propensity to buy the package--almost twice the industry norms for a successful package,” Pasterick said. “There was a consistent 12% that said they would not buy wine in a carton, but we had more than 80% acceptance. The problem now is that we can’t make enough of them.”

50,000 Cases in 6 Months

The initial goal had been to ship 25,000 cases of Cribari in cartons within six months, but 50,000 cases were sent out in the first four weeks alone, he said. “We’re chartering planes to bring the boxes in.”

A second box-forming machine is on the way, and Guild now aims to move 1 million cases of the new cartons by the end of next June.

“I’m pleased, yes,” Pasterick said of the two-year effort to turn Guild around. “But am I satisfied? No, we have a long way to go.”