My friend wants to store wine for people in a professional cooler. He has a warehouse and wants to buy a cooler to hold 3000 bottles. He feels there would be a fair market for this service. What are your thoughts ?
Wine Storage?
March 19th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Wine Cellars
Tags: wine cooler
winephilly // Mar 19, 2010 at 1:29 pm
good question. At the wine school, we get many people asking for such services. However, if he is looking to open a facility, he needs to think in much higher volume. 3,000 may seem alot, but the school has two cellars: one holds 1K and the other holds 5K bottles. that is extreme (we are a wine school, after all) however, you can expect a serious collector –which are the only people to want such a service–would have somewhere between 500-1000 bottles in their cellar.
You would need a facility with at least 30,000 bottles capacity, seperate lockers for each client, and a redundant cooling system, plus backup generators in case of a blackout.
HoosierPimp // Mar 19, 2010 at 1:29 pm
No way. People who store wine to drink don’t want to drive to pick it up.
People who invest & collect can afford a home cellar or cooler.
Tell your friend to get back to work. (At his day job)
ArcH // Mar 19, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Yes, there’s a potential market for that esp. if the city where he resides has seen an increasing number of wine enthusiasts. The investment would probably mainly on renovating his warehouse and the sofware to keep track of the wine. Delivery service would be a plus. I’ve seen some local companies charge $2 per year per bottle of wine.
Oh yeah, he should penetrate into the wine connoisseurs’ circle as well to advertise his service.
It’s pretty risky but could be rewarding in medium-long term.
Patricia D // Mar 19, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Possibly. I am the cellar manager for a wine tasting group in Ontario, Canada and we store all of our wine at the Fine Wine Reserve in downtown Toronto. Below is the website and I would suggest you contact the President of the company and ask him for advice. His name is Marc Russell.
http://www.finewinereserve.com
Best of luck.