Throughout the month of August, many Italian and French wine businesses shut up shop in an annual tradition commonly referred to as the “August closures” and “summer shutdowns.” These summer shutdowns are an excellent opportunity for UK wine importers and distributors to take the time to undertake key operational or administration tasks in preparation for the busy Autumn run up to Christmas. In this blog, we take a look at five activities your wine business could do during the August closures (summer shutdown).
Five activities for the August closures
1. Do a comprehensive stock take
If trade is quieter during the August closures and people are on holiday, it could be a great time to check your stock accuracy. A comprehensive stock take of your current inventory will help you ensure that the stock you have listed in your inventory management system is the same as the physical stock you have in your stock room or warehouse.
Bevica’s built-in inventory management features ensure that our users’ warehouse managers and stock controllers have complete control and visibility of all their business’s inventory; making any physical stock take undertaken a smooth, painless process.
2. Do some administrative housekeeping
There are a number of administrative housekeeping activities you can undertake during the August closures. Those you can do in the Bevica system:
Reviewing your transactional data and archiving old purchase and sales documents such as purchase orders. If you are on Bevica SaaS, it is important to manage your database storage effectively. Click for more information on archiving documents in your Bevica (powered by Business Central) system.
Updating the Marketing details on items in your inventory that may have changed such as vintages, including ABVs. You may also want to update the marketing descriptions and product pictures on the Item card. This is particularly valuable if your system synchronises with your e-commerce site as you will not only be updating your back-office systems but will also be improving the marketing information your customers see when they come to your website.
3. Review your Q1 sales forecasts against budgets
For some companies, July marks the end of Q1 of the financial year. This would be a good time to review your sales actuals against your forecast. Within Bevica, the Moving Annual Totals Sales Analysis Reports are an excellent way for both your procurement and sales teams to get an accurate overview of your sales figures for Q1, current stock availability, and estimated stock depletion rates.
4. Finalise your Christmas forecasts
It is also an excellent time to finalise your Christmas forecasts and stock requirements. The MAT Sales Analysis report will give you clear visibility of last year’s Christmas actuals and help you make informed decisions on what stock you will need for the festive season this year. Once this is finalised, you could also start preparing your purchase orders for Christmas stock that you want to buy from 1 September.
5. Plan your Christmas promotions
While you are thinking about Christmas planning, you can also plan your Christmas promotions. Christmas is a great time for mixed wine cases. Therefore, summer is the time to prepare your assembly orders for these mixed cases, making sure that you have the right mix of items available. Bevica includes built-in assembly management features which allow users to combine components without the need of manufacturing functionality. These features integrate with other parts of the system, such as sales, planning, reservations, and warehousing to help your business create new products (i.e. packs of assorted bottles) to sell during the Christmas season.
How can Bevica help you?
Bevica is the complete business management system created especially for the drinks industry. Our team’s experience working both in and for the drinks industry means that we have an excellent understanding of the industry’s particular wants, needs and business processes and have built a system that meets them. To find out more about Bevica and how it could help modernise and improve your business processes and productivity, book a demo with one of our expert team today.
