INTRODUCTION:

The purpose of following essay is the analysis of the sales data of the previous seasons, followed by feasible recommendations in order to boost the sales of our restaurant in the fore season.

FINDINGS:

The overall sales performance of each type of wine is analyzed. From the data, French red wine is the most popular wine being sold on average.

From November, 2011 to March, 2012, the sales performance of French Red wine is the best. However, from April to June of the same year, sales of French red dropped, having an overall 8.48%, being overtaken by sparkling wine having an overall 11.51% of sales. From July to August, sales of French red regained and overtook that of sparkling wine, having an overall 12.01% of total sales.
Due to the high demand of French red wine, this essay would mainly focus on French red wine. Also recommendation on some of the red wines would also be given.

Fig 1. Comparison between the sales performance of French Red wine and the sparkling wine

I. FRENCH RED WINE:
High Sales Wine:Hauts de Carras

From the data ,Hauts de Carras has a constantly high sales over the year: Oct-Dec,2011 | Jan-Mar, 2012 | Apr-Jun, 2012 | Jul-Aug,2012 | 3.66% (43 bottles) | 3.06%(35 bottles) | 2.13%(24 bottles) | 0.66%(4 bottles) |
Description:
Hauts de Carras is a medium body wine from Paulliac region. It is blended wine containing 45% Merlot, 50% Cabernet sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc. It has the taste of woody nose with hints of vanilla and red fruit. Also, it has firm but not too strong tannins, which is easy to drink. It follows a typical Pauillac appellation.
The reason of its high sales percent could be explained by its medium pricing but high quality.

The Sales performance of this wine is consistently high from October 2011 to June 2012. However, the sales has dropped to 0.66% from July to August of the same year. This may be due to the fact that its only a one month sales data, comparing to the rest of the data which has a two months duration. It is anticipated that the sales percent would rise to its normal level( around 2-3% of the overall sales). As a result, we can keep it at the same price and at the same time stock reduction will not be needed.

Potential wine: Chateau Rauzan Segla 2005
From the data, Chateau Rauzan Segla(2005) shows an increasing % of sales in the last few seasons:

Oct-Dec,2011 | Jan-Mar, 2012 | Apr-Jun, 2012 | Jul-Aug,2012 | 0.5% (5 bottles) | 1.23%(12 bottles) | 1.25%(12 bottles) | 1.36%(7 bottles) |
Description:
Chateau Rauzan Segla(2005) is a well-balanced wine from Margaux region. It has strong aromas of crushed berry, flowers, currant and Indian spices. It is full bodied, with extremely fine tannins giving a long finishing taste. It is blended with 55% Cabernet Sauvignon,45% Merlot , and 5% of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Recommendation:
With the substantial increase on the demand of this wine, we should simply increase the stock of it. At the same time, we can take an advantage of this increasing demand. We are having a similar wine Chateau Rauzan Segla 07HB in our menu. However the sales performance this wine is far from satisfaction. As a result we can offer a discount package, selling Chateau Rauzan Segla 2005 with Chateau Rauzan Segla 07HB at a 90% discount. It is believed this discount package can boost the sales ofSegla07HB and at the time retain that of segla05 at a high percentage.

Potential Wine: Chateau D’Issan (2008):
Description:
Chateau D’Issan (2008) is a medium priced French red wine. It is produced in the Magaux region. It is full bodied and has strong aromas of flowers, blackberry, plum and some sweet boysenberries. The tannins is soft, which is easy to swallow down the throat. It is blended with 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot. This wine is produced in low yield, due to the massive hail storm in Magaux in May.[1] The wine follows a Magaux appellation.

The wine is only introduced in the menu since July 2012. From the sales data, Chateau D’Issan (2008) shows an enormously high overall sales percentage (2.26%). It indicates that this wine has a great potential in becoming a blockbuster in our restaurant menu. To satisfy the high demand of this wine, we can increase the stock of this wine and keep it on the menu to further examine its potential. Low Sales Wine: Chateau Canon 2001
Canon 2001 is introduced since March, 2012. The sales data of this wine is shown as follows: March-May,2012 | July-August,2012 | 0.23%(1 bottle) | 0.42%(1 bottle) |
Description:
Chateau Canon 2001 is a premium priced Bordeaux red wine. It is produced in the St. Emilion region. It has aromas of sweet blackcurrant fruit, plums and black peppers. It is medium bodied with a good length. The tannins of this wine are extremely fine and soft. It is blended with 75% of Merlot and 25 % Caberent Franc. It is produced from the 2001 harvest.
Recommendation:
The first reason of selling at this high price is because this wine is produced in Chateau Canon which has a 1er Grand Cru Classe. Also, according to Robert Parker[2], year 2003 is one of the year which has 90 points or above for Bordeaux wine. This may explain for its premium pricing. However, it sales remains quite low despite its premium quality. One of the reasons to explain this can be the fact that majority of customers are not familiar with the quality of this wine. Alongside with this premium pricing, customers would hesitate whether this wine is worthy to buy or not. To tackle this problem, we can first reduce the selling price of this wine(i.e.90% off discount). This can encourage customers in trying this wine and so they may fall in love with it after their first try. We can hold this discount promotion for a month to triad an error. If this wine shows a substantial increase in sales in the promotion period, we can then increase the price back to the original value. Otherwise, we can delete this wine from our menu.

II. General Recommendation on French Red
Increase the variety of Bordeaux wine
The majority of our customer is expected to be Chinese. As shown from the fact that China imported 58 million bottles of Bordeaux wine in 2011 which is 103 percent increase compared to 2010[3], the demand for Bordeaux red wine for Chinese customers is expected to increase drastically. In order to satisfy our Chinese customers, we should increase the variety of Bordeaux wine in our menu so that more choices can be given.
According to a news report from China Daily, the trend of preference on Bordeaux wine is changed from either high-range or bottom-range to middle-range.[4] It is because Chinese consumers are becoming more knowledgeable and sophisticated about wine. Based on this scenario, we should also introduce more mid-range Bordeaux red wine in our menu.
Putting extremely superior French Red wine in our menu
Although from the findings stated below that mid-range Bordeaux red wine are more preferable when it comes to our Chinese customers. We should at the same time introduce extremely superior Bordeaux red wine like Laffitte Rothschild 1982 in our menu. This is because we are a restaurant in a standard 5 stars hotel. Putting wine like this in our menu would definitely create a superior perception of high standard in our restaurant. The demand for this wine though is expected to be low, yet the revenue generated on even one purchase is far more promising. Given the large customers base due to the hotel, addition of this wine in our menu is definitely worth a try. However, we should keep the stock of this wine in a small stock( i.e. one or two), due to the extremely small and unpredictable demand.

III. Conclusion

Sales data is analyzed and it is found that French red wine has the highest demand.
Several recommendations are also given on several French red wines due to its performance. It is anticipated that these suggestion can boost the sales of the French red wine, thus increasing the total revenue. Although French red wine is very important in boosting sales, the sales of other types of wines should not be neglected.