We sat down with John Aitken, Director of Supply Chain Operations and Sarah Slocombe, Supply Chain Analyst to talk about their experiences with implementing and using Claret.
1. How did you come to select Claret as a product?
John: Claret had been used by IWBC staff at other organizations and came recommended—we saw Claret as a planning solution that was wine-specific we felt could get up and running quickly.
Sarah: I hadn’t started with IWBC until after Claret was selected, so I can’t speak on the decision-making process. However, I know that the business was looking to streamline data in terms of decision making, transparency, and cross-functionality. A big focus for IWBC is long-term production planning both in Winemaking and Viticulture, so this shows how Claret is a great fit overall for questions we were looking to solve for.
2. What business challenges were you facing that led you to start using Claret?
John: Planning—both short and long-term was done informally and siloed within our business. Historically, we were also a supply driven business (sell what we made). We knew as a business that we needed to better link our long term goals (sales plan) with our vineyard strategy. We distilled this complexity down to a single question—if we want to sell 10,000 cases of Tier 1 Cabernet Franc in 2032 do we have enough vines in the ground in the right locations. This is a question we could answer, but not easily/systemically or with a high level of confidence.
Sarah: Long term planning, source of truth (linking between business units) of sales and production data.
3. How did you envisage Claret would address these challenges?
John: We felt that Claret would be the best place to hold all of the “inputs” that we’d historically use to answer this question manually. Having them centralized and formalized in a platform would allow us to repeatedly answer this question, and enter into more advanced scenario planning. While the logic & calculations in Claret we felt would help, having the information formalized and front/centre for anyone in the organization to access was critical for us.
Sarah: Again, I can’t speak much on the decision to select or the impression prior to setting up Claret within our business, but I do believe that the ability to link internal data sources in a way that is accessible across all our teams was the focus.
4. What were the functions within Claret that initially appealed to you and the team?
John: Make Planning was the selling point for us with Claret—the ability to convert a finished item into a farm component was something that we felt could be repeated in other planning tools, but would take significant customization and/or bill of material building and maintenance.
Sarah: From the conversations I had early on in my start with the company, the ability to long-term plan our wines and assess the vines that would provide those key wines was the most important function—so I’d say Make Planning and the way that ties into the Farm model.
5. Who are the main current users of Claret within IWBC? What business processes involve Claret?
John: Claret is a multi-functional tool that teams throughout the organization both own and leverage. The Supply Chain team is our key user managing the links between demand and our Make Plan output/Farm Module. Our viticulture team owns the supply end of Claret and our Sales & Demand teams own both the Sales Collaboration and Long-term demand planning. Our winemaking team in collaboration with the Supply Chain team work through the annual Make Planning cycle.
Sarah: I would mimic exactly what John states in his response!
6. What are the benefits that these groups have seen since implementing Claret?
John: Single source of truth—historically we managed our forecasts, winemaking activities, Viti activities and Supply Chain planning in multiple different systems, all pulled together (poorly) with Excel. Beyond this, the ability for us to do scenario planning is where we’ve most seen the benefits of Claret. We have multiple sales (demand plans) that we can pull in to answer various questions.
Sarah: We have been able to solve for lots of long-term planning decisions, determining supply risks (both long and short) based on our inventory and sales picture, and sales teams have been able to have an accessible view of their short term budgeting. We’ve found that a lot of ad-hoc business questions that have come up this year can be solved in some way with the data that flows through Claret, and it’s all consistently available in one spot.
7. How quickly did the team get into using Claret? How did you find the implementation and what are the general impressions of the tool?
John: The initial master-data setup took 3-4 months, however, it took a few more months (and our jump into the annual planning cycle) before we were able to get engagement across multiple functions. Overall we have found the tool to be a benefit as described above—the output and confidence in our analytics has increased significantly
Sarah: The set up of the tool felt very streamlined with our existing data, and that was due to the Claret team’s ability to work with us to transform our data to best fit the model. The overall impression is that the with the right inputs, the tool is capable of being very powerful in answering numerous questions that the business may have been able to answer in the past, but with less confidence in concise gathering of inputs.
8. Do you have any metrics you can share with us that indicate process and/or forecasting improvements driven by using Claret?
John: The value we’ve seen and our focus over the last several months are on our long-term plans. Facing a significant vineyard replant, we’ve been using Claret to build out many long-term demand scenarios and translate that into fruit requirements. We are taking the outputs from Claret to make decisions on vine purchases, vineyard replant strategies, as well as short-term fruit sourcing.
Sarah: I would echo John’s answer here again, we haven’t gotten to the point of forecasting improvements at this point, but the focus has been on long-term business planning (sourcing and product architecture decisions).
9. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
John: We’ve been incredibly pleased with the engagement and support we’ve received from the Claret team. We’ve felt the level of dedication we’ve received has gone beyond what we expected and one of the reasons Claret has been successful thus far. This is the unsung part of the company and tool.
Sarah: The Claret team has been so quick to help me answer any questions I may have when using or modifying data within the tool. I don’t know if I have ever really received a “that’s not possible” type of response, which has really shown how beneficial this tool has been for our team. Over a year later I still feel very supported in the work we are doing with Claret in our business by your team—so thank you for your consistent guidance and ability to adapt to our needs!
For IWBC, the path to better wine begins with better planning. By centralizing data, streamlining communication between departments, and enabling long-term scenario planning, they’ve turned complexity into clarity.
The result? More confident decisions, less time spent stitching together spreadsheets, and a planning process that actually supports the future they’re building toward.
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Claret was built for this kind of efficiency. If you’re working in beverage alcohol and looking for the sorts of planning improvements IWBC has seen, Claret can help.
Explore the tools and modules available through the Solutions tab on our site, and see how Claret brings smart planning to every part of your supply chain.
Frequently asked questions
What led IWBC to invest in Claret
What modules do IWBC use and where did they start with their implementation?
What are some of the benefits the IWBC have seen through using Claret?
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Can I read some case studies of other businesses using Claret?
less time forecasting
