David Snyder
Northport, MI (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal
The Archduke's Daughter LLC
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Startup
Location:
Northport
Industry:
Agriculture
Year Founded:
2011
Number Employees:
1-10 people
Business Stage:
Creation/Idea
Entity Type:
Limited Liability Partnership
Description:
The Archduke’s Daughter LLC is a wine business based in Leelanau County Michigan. Our vision is to be the most financially successful wine producer in Michigan. Our mission is to put Michigan “on the map” with wine consumers in the United States.
Financial success can be achieved in the wine business, but not by utilizing industry standard practices. This is evident from the old adage in the wine industry that, “Owning a winery is a great way to make a small fortune … out of a large one.” To avoid this fate, we conducted over two years of research to identify both best practices and common barriers to success in the wine industry.
Our problem statement was simple: How best to produce immediate, significant, sustainable, and expandable profits in a Michigan-based wine business?
To solve this problem, we have elected to forge a strong retail foundation that will be used as a base to achieve long-term growth through wholesale distribution.
The Archduke’s Daughter will create a strong retail base by developing three distinct brands. Each brand will be aimed at a different product category. As a part of building this base, we will obtain the winery assets of an existing Leelanau Count winery. Wine for the three brands will come from the purchased vineyards, purchased local and southwest Michigan grapes, and from finished wine obtained from the west coast.
In addition to our retail base, we will develop a negociant services line of business. We will charge services fees to “Negociant Entrepreneurs” who will create their own mini wine business associated with The Archduke’s Daughter LLC. We will procure raw materials, blend, age and bottling wine for the entrepreneurs. We will then use a little-known legal advantage of Michigan wineries to sell their wine through Archduke’s Daughter Wine Bars. The Negociant Entrepreneurs should make profits of 10% or more and can write off many wine-related expenses. This concept is unique.
We will open a Gateway Tasting Complex in southern Leelanau County to house tasting rooms for each of our three retail brands and our first Archduke’s Daughter Wine Bar. The complex will contain an open-air market with 24 individual entrepreneur-run booths as well as a helium balloon ride that will rise to 500 feet above West Grand Traverse Bay. These features will drive customer traffic to the complex and will enhance the wine tasting experience.
We will use this strong retail foundation to launch our wholesale business.
One of our brands, Zeppelin, will be made from excess production bulk wines designed to be profitable when sold through the three-tier distribution system. Our Zeppelin brand combined with our Negociant Entrepreneurs will serve as a “skunk works” for the development of potential wholesale products. Products that are successful in our tasting rooms and wine bars will be produced in volume and sold at wholesale. This gives us unlimited potential for sales and profit growth and the ability to expand and contract production to meet market demand.