1 To what extent is the cork industry guilty of complacency and a lack of innovation?
The cork industry is guilty of complacency and lack of innovation because they failed to recognize the changes in the wine industry. The wine industry was experiencing a revolution where new producers from Australia, California and Chile had new and different requirements. It took only a matter of years for the industry to change completely and the cork industry did not jump on the band wagon when it needed to. It allows the competition to get the edge.

2 If consumers love corks, why are the producers not providing what their customers want?
The reason being is because the wine industry has changed significantly over the past twenty years. The historical dominant producers of Europe – France, Germany, Italy, and Spain – are being challenged by new wine producers such as California, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, etc. The new producers have developed international wine brands which have changed the wine market. The international brand has demanded a consistent product with little variation. Unlike the traditional wine product which had a degree of variety dependent on the grape, the climate and production. Also they buyers were changing due to supermarket chains.

3 Is it wine quality or costs that have driven producers to synthetic?
It has a combination of a bit of both however if I had to choose one it would be that producers are driven by cost. The reason I say this is because most consumers that buy from supermarket are driven by price and many producers are trying penetrating into that market. Take the UK for instance … 75% of wine sales go through supermarket.

4 How could technology forecasting have helped the cork industry?
If the cork industry would have done technology forecasting early on then this could have helped them in investing in