Welcome to 2024!
OPINION: The New Year is now well underway and appears to have started promisingly on the weather front, with lots of warm, dry days.
The latest report, the 2nd from Strategic Review, was presented to the Board on 11 October who then met a fortnight later to discuss the Review findings. The first decision by the Board was to release the report to growers and wineries, which was then discussed with them in a series of workshops at the end of October.
We have received considerable feedback from the workshops – thank you to those members who have taken the time to email or call us. In general terms response from members has been that PwC has done a good job in correctly identifying the issues, opportunities and challenges confronting members and the industry as a whole. Members have been supportive of the new purpose for NZW which was adopted by the Board at its meeting on 25 October.
At the member meetings discussing the Review, Chair John Clarke and Deputy Clive Jones outlined the initial steps taken by the Board – establishment of an Implementation Committee to guide and monitor the NZW response to the review, and work programmes in Sustainability and Marketing amongst other matters.
With the Strategic Review comprising over 300 pages it will of course take some time for NZW to develop its full response to the Report. Our plan for next year will reflect the changes we will be making as the result of the Review and we expect it will guide all our activities over the next five years at least. So as in 2011 we are committed to extracting full value from the Review.
But it is important to remember that the Strategic Review was not just conducted with NZW in mind. A key goal of the review was to provide growers and wineries with an information resource of value. So to get extract value out of the Review members also need to consider what its findings mean for their own vineyard and winery businesses.
