Dear Valued Customer,
The purpose of this letter is to provide transparency for our winery partners regarding the current state of glass supply. The information we are sharing with you in this letter is critical to the Wine Industry’s packaging supply and our goal is to provide you with resources and support in order for you to make decisions regarding this current bottling season that will position you ahead. As your packaging partner, we are working every approach in order to ensure minimal disruption and will provide communication updates as the situation changes.
Here is a brief description on why we are experiencing delays and shortages, not only with glass, but across numerous supply channels.
Aside from the pandemic itself, there is not a single basis cause for the disruption. A significant increase in demand for consumer goods coincided with labor and capacity shortages due to the pandemic and has caused a situation of intertwined bottlenecks of port congestion, vessel shortages, equipment shortages, chassis shortages, rail shortages, and truck shortages. There is not enough capacity to move cargo in need of transportation.
Not only are we experiencing an extreme surge in freight rates, but we struggle to find available containers and vessels to move our glass to U.S. Warehouses. A new wave of COVID outbreaks in China is now compounding the problem leaving us with no easy recovery ahead. Things are absolutely going to get worse before they get better as cargo vessels are currently avoiding ports in China where the outbreaks are worsening.
In turn, port congestion in Oakland has multiple ocean carriers dropping their call to Oakland and instead delivering to Los Angeles or Long Beach, CA.
You may be thinking how this may affect you if your source of glass bottles is domestically produced. In truth, it is all intertwined. Delays and shortages from China sources have resulted in a surge in demand for U.S. produced glass and there is simply not enough capacity domestically to service the entire market.
So, what does this mean for you and what is TricorBraun WinePak doing about it? First and foremost, our team at WinePak always puts our customers first and we are here to help! We are a global supplier with Strength, Resources and Reach.
Strength
We have the leverage to be able to pay premium rates for containers and ocean freight in order to be able to move inventory from overseas. This is a unique advantage that TricorBraun has however it comes at a huge risk as we are paying high rates in order to provide our customers with any and all glass possible for this season.
TricorBraun has the strength allowing for investments within our suppliers in order to gain more capacity to be able to provide our winery partners with more options.
Resources
We have TricorBraun team members in China working tirelessly to secure any and all available containers and vessel capacity.
Our supply chain team is emphasizing tracking of all orders and containers in transit so that we can provide our customers with timely and pertinent information.
Our resources include logistics and supply chain experts available to provide our partners with the most accurate and up to date information regarding the situation.
Reach
We have a team working all angles to schedule trucks available to move containers from Southern California ports up to WinePak warehouses.
Our purchasing team is working to secure more capacity with new suppliers.
We are gaining capacity with repacking lines including filled goods repacks.
What do we need from you? Help us help you…
There will be orders that are not impacted so please do not panic. In order to best serve you, we are asking for communication and flexibility. Your WinePak Packaging Consultant will reach out to you if you have an order that is at risk. We may ask for flexibility in delivery date and/or flexibility with the bottle that you use this season. We ask that you start to have discussions on your end on how you can position yourself ahead should we experience a delay in getting your glass. And lastly, stay in communication with our team and your WinePak Packaging Consultant.
Being a truly global supplier, we have the options and reach available allowing us to backfill orders where necessary. With our international sources and the leverage of the TricorBraun Operations Team, we worked with each individual customer to provide solutions when our main source for domestically produced glass experienced a turbulent 6 month period including a: Furnace outage, color change and a ransomware attack.
We are here to help, we have options and we are in this together.
For more information please visit:
TricorBraun - A Distributor’s Advice for Navigating the Freight Container Shortage
The TricorBraun Pulse - May 2021
Kathy Brooks - Senior Vice President/GM
Phone: (214) 236-3267
Email: kbrooks@tricorbraun.com
Andrew Bottene - Senior Vice President, Sales
Phone: (714) 345-7377
Email: abottene@tricorbraunwinepak.com
Nelson Costa - Director of Operations – WinePak
Phone: (707) 208-7420
Email: nelson.costa@tricorbraun.com