Winery DTC offerings (VWE)
Salisbury Creative Group did a study of 500 winery websites to gauge their online effectiveness. Most winery websites were poorly equipped to enroll new email subscribers on their websites. More than 90% of the wineries surveyed had only one place on their website to sign up for the email list. Less than a quarter provided a compelling reason to join the email list. In comparison, the 21% of wineries that do provide compelling reasons offered some of the following: access to special offers, access to limited releases, alerts to winery events, free shipping, overnight shipping, discounts on first orders, or access to VIP experiences. Almost one-quarter of the wineries did not have working links to their social media accounts which can double the number of followers. Most wineries are small businesses. Vintage Wine Estates (VWE) has been able to extract numerous synergies from the companies it acquires. ACE Cider, VWE’s most recent acquisition, did not have a social media presence. Creating value through its acquisitions pipeline is one of the reasons VWE is on our long list.
New high for truck rates (UTZ)
The DAT Truckload Volume Index increased 2% in October from September. The index is a standard indicator of freight activity for dry van, refrigerated, and flatbed loads. The national average for van loads on the spot market increased 3 cents to $2.87 per mile in October from September. For October, the van spot market was up 18.9% YOY, while reefer was up 26.5%, and flatbed was up 25.2%. For the week ended November 21, van spot rates increased 1.5% from the prior week. The number of loads posted to the DAT network fell 3.3% from September, while the number of trucks grew 4.2%. The national average van load to truck ratio was 5.6, down from 6.3 in September. The fuel surcharge increased 20 cents YOY to 39 cents a mile for van freight. The national average price of on-highway diesel was $3.61 a gallon in October, up 51.2% YOY, the highest monthly average since November 2014. Fuel is the second-largest operating cost for truck fleets after labor. Higher freight rates are a margin headwind for nearly every consumer staples company.
Danone invests in plant-based milk capacity (OTLY)
Danone announced that it would transform one of its dairy factories in France into a plant-based milk factory. The transformation is part of a $49M investment plan to ramp up plant-based milk production. The facility will mostly make oat milk. Danone reported that plant-based products have tripled in France over seven years. Last month Danone announced a $23M investment to transform a U.K. factory into a plant-based milk factory. The U.K. plant’s capacity will be 400 million liters of soy, oat, rice, and coconut-based milk for the domestic market. Plant-based milk continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S. and internationally. Several of the large food companies are late to the category but are investing in plant-based foods and beverages now.
