Stakeholder Value
About Between-us
|
The Greener the Wine the Better?Branding based upon Family Values The roots of the Torres family in the Penedès region of Spain, in Catalunya, can be traced back to the 17th century, with the very first written records of wine trading in the Torres family going back to 1628. It was not until 1870 though that the family firm was formally incorporated.
Tradición y Innovación
For many years, innovation has been pooled with tradition. For instance since 1984 Torres put tremendous efforts in collecting and multiplying indigenous Catalan grape varieties. Some 45 old grape varieties were rediscovered, most of which were presumed to have been lost to the Phyloxera plague of 1890. Innovation also has been applied to the branding side of the business. Where Don Miguel Sr. introduced the Coronas brand, current president Miguel A. Torres introduced the global branding concept to the world of wine making and distribution, making it a key to its success. At Torres the brand nowadays stands to represent many things: (1) Spain, first and foremost, as an exceptional wine producing country with a phenomenal diversity of terroirs; (2) consistently great quality and organic production techniques; and (3) value for money. Today the value proposition of the Torres brand is summarized as “Torres: a wine you can trust”.
Sustainability in Wine
Even though end consumers do not yet put a high premium on sustainability as an attribute of the wine they purchase at the local store, sustainability increasingly features higher on the retailers’ agenda across the globe.
Larger retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Tesco, are pioneering new sustainability standards and are leading the way to greener pastures. For example, on February 25th 2010 Wal-Mart announced publicly its goal to eliminate 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by the end of 2015. Mike Duke, Wal-Mart president and CEO, explained the move in the following terms:
“Energy efficiency and carbon reduction are central issues in the world today. We’ve been working to make a difference in these areas, both in our own footprint and our supply chain. We know that we have an opportunity to do more and the capacity to do more.”
Progressing the Brand
Based upon the super ordinate family values at Torres, numerous actions have been taken to react to the changing conditions of Climate and Market. Environmentally responsible vineyard practices have been implemented for over 30 years and several local environment protection programs have been put into place. In 2008 Torres installed permanent photovoltaic panels on a surface area of approximately 12,000 m² at the winery in Pacs del Penedès. And in 2010 Torres participated in a wind park to generate 2.8 MW of energy with an investment of €650,000. Furthermore experiments with Algae are conducted to capture the CO2 from the fermentation process and electric delivery vans were purchased to green the distribution process. To adapt to climate change Torres has bought land in the Pyrenees and has started producing pinot noir and chardonnay wines from grapes grown at 1200 meters above sea level.
Torres also reduces the overall carbon footprint by reducing the weight of its bottles. The company produced some 18.7 million Burgundy-shaped bottles per year, and the introduction of a 16.7% lighter bottle reduces the carbon emissions by about the same amount. Torres also plans to reduce the weight of its Bordeaux-shaped bottles, of which 5.1 million were produced annually. The 2020 objective is to decrease CO2 with 20% and to increase wastewater re-usage to over 40%.
Learn more?
Last February the efforts of this traditional and innovative house of wines were recognised. Torres was awarded the coveted International Green Company of the Year 2010 by the prestigious magazine Drinks Business. And in April 2010 Between-us has published a case on sustainability at Torres together with IMD in Lausanne. For more information on sustainable branding please contact Jan van der Kaaij at jan@between-us.nl .
|
Building the business case for sustainabilityHow can you ensure that your sustainability strategy actually is implemented at all levels of the organisation? The core is in motivating and... |
Between-us • Baronielaan 126a • NL-4818 RD Breda • The Netherlands • info@between-us.nl • +3176 5 222 817
