A question to those of you in distribution and retail: is there a bias against wines that are sealed with a “stock” stelvin capsule (i.e. no custom graphic, one of an array of standard colors offered by the manufacturer) ? If I walk down the isle of my local wine super-store, I see almost exclusively custom capsules, even when the customization appears to bring very little to the overall package. Are people just choosing the custom route because they prefer the look, or are they responding to a resistance within the distribution chain to pick up wines sealed with a non-custom closure? Given the price difference between the two (2 to 1) I am really surprised at the dearth of “stock” capsules.
Re: consumer purchases:
Wine geeks care about what’s in the bottle, the other 99.9% of the populace cares about what’s on the label/capsule when making a buying decision.
Sure, I get that. However, my question isn’t whether or not the design of the bottle influences consumer decisions, but rather whether there is a specific and conscious aversion by distributors and retailers to bottles without a custom cap, even if the “stock” capsule works really well with the color and design scheme of the label.
When wines are presented to me, I don’t really care whether they have a standard or custom Stelvin on them. As long as the wine is worth the coin, I’m in.
I’m not sure how much or what you produce, but in retail, not bottle shops, it takes a label, capsule, stelvin with a design to get someone to pick up your bottle, and not something with a llama on it instead, so whatever it takes to get your wine in a consumers hand and ultimately the wine into their mouth is worth doing. They have to buy it once to be a repeat customer, and tell their friends.
When you buy enough Stelvins each year, there is no cost difference - they do the customized ones for free. Or maybe there was a one time fee for the die? I don’t remember for sure, but the cost going forward is the same as stock.
Really? I’ve always thought and heard that there was not only a set up fee, but higher costs all along . . . I guess it depends upon the volume you purchase; and I understand they are now doing the printing stateside, saving air freight costs and time . . .
Cheers!
We pay $180 per 1,000 for our Stelvins (based on an order of 95,000 capsules), or 18 cents each. That includes our Logo embossed on the top, and a saranex liner. Shipping charges are extra.
Thanks Brian - greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
Interesting. Thanks for the feedback. The quotes I am working with put a two color custom capsule at $0.22 a pop, with the stock variety going for $0.11, but that is based on an order of about 30,000. We were quoted a cent or two price break with economies of scale, but down to $0.18 is pretty attractive.
We don’t do any color on ours, so that might be the difference. We get a solid black capsule with just our logo embossed.
As a consumer, I’d be willing to pay $0.11 extra per bottle for some identifying mark/logo on top of the cap/capsule — makes it a lot easier to find what I’m looking for when fishing around the cellar.