Friday, May 29 2009

(Above and) Beyond the Grape

Sniff, it's so pretty I just keep breaking into tears

I've been promising that I'd visit the new digs for Beyond the Grape for months now, and last Friday I finally made it. It was worth the wait, because the new location is a knockout.

BTG is one of our top-tier retailers in BC. I started working with the store a full ten years ago when it opened in Newport Village in Port Moody. Jim and Sandra Croney bought the business in 2001, opened another store in Burnaby and brought their son-in-law Michael Druce in to manage the new place. With passing time (and the help of long-term employees Chris and Evan) they outgrew both locations and amalgamated the two stores into one new mega-store on St. John's street in Port Moody. Michael and Sandra are now managing the new store together--and doing a fabulous job.

Winexpert has a retailer support program we call the ARP ('Authorised Retailer Program'--very imaginatve terminology, no?) and part of it extends not only to technical support (that'd be me) signage, marketing and sales programs, it also goes to branding, both of the Winexpert name and the products.

The branding includes logos, signage, awnings and suchlike, and the new Beyond the Grape is one of the first shops in Canada to utlilise all of our colours, fonts, logos everywhere. You have to appreciate what a step this is for an independent business, hitching your wagon closely to a single supplier. I'm glad they're as confident of us as we are of them--and we are indeed confident of them, as they've consistently scored top marks in my Winemaking Excellence 1 and 2 programs, and have incorporated the principles of Operations Excellence into the new place. It's very cool to see someone not just pass a program, but to put it into use and really dig in with it.

Here's a pictorial of the new place:

Looking east on St. Johns

Sandra, at the bottling station. Note 4-head bottle filler and automatic corker.

Michael showing off the giftwear

It's a barrel of laughs . . . er, wine at Beyond the Grape!

The pictures don't really do justice to how nice and airy it is: high ceilings, warm inviting colours, spacious showroom and bottling areas, nor how well set-up it is. The area for making up the wines is brilliantly organised, and even things as mundane as the washing area and the maintenance desk (lots of equipment and things need tuning and tightening at a wine on premise) are clean, spacious, airy and well thought-out.

It's fun to brag up a place like BTG. Their hard work makes us look so good I can't help it. And their attention to detail is pretty funny: check it out

Looks serious!

Even the parking signs are logo'd in the colour scheme. How cool is that? Congratulations on your new place Sandra, Michael and crew: I'm looking forward to the next ten years.

Posted by Tim AT 12:03PM

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