Sounds like a hunting tool… actually a wine. Duckhorn Portfolio is Napa Valley’s first publicly traded winemaker in decades, and the stock (perfect ticker: NAPA) is up 20% since its $2B March IPO. Its 10 luxury wine brands include Decoy, Duckhorn Vineyards, and Kosta Browne, with bottles ranging from $20 to $200. Last quarter, the supplier swung a profit and beat pre-pandemic levels with 36% sales growth. Behind the boon:
One-stop wine shop… Empty vineyards and shuttered tasting rooms put a strain on most luxury vineyards during the pandemic. Duckhorn offset those losses by increasing its presence in grocery stores, where most consumers shopped, and by launching new products and features:
In crowded markets, differentiation is key... When customers walk into the wine section of a grocery or liquor store, they’re overloaded with options. While IRL wine tours paused and in-store and online shopping competition spiked, Duckhorn innovated to reach a target audience: millennials, who spend more per bottle than any other demo. Differentiation worked: Brand-new products like seltzers and its Alexa feature helped its wine portfolio sales grow faster than those of the other top 20 US suppliers.