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Josh Hackler’s Spanish Vines introduces Old World products to a young, new audience
Photo/Brett Flashnick
By Ashley Byrd
Contributing Writer
It’s not often that veteran business professors and corporate buyers describe their first meeting with the owner of a startup company with words like “impressive,” “already competitive,” “excellent product” and “sharp.”
Especially when the founder and president of the company is just 23 years old.
Add in the fact that Josh Hackler founded a wine and food import company that he was not born into. In an industry that is centuries old and dominated by established names, superlatives for startups are hard to come by.
While being the driving force behind this startup, Hackler is not an upstart. His calm business demeanor belies his age.
He has been working 17-hour days for months now, yet he is bright-eyed and ready to hit the road for another week of sales presentations in another state.
The result of this tireless energy is that Hackler’s company, Spanish Vines, which he founded in 2006, has already experienced strong growth. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 were four times the sales reported in the previous third quarter.
To understand is to enjoy
When Hackler was a teenager, he visited Spain for the first time, and he knew he’d go back. Little did he know that he would make it his career to be a commercial “ambassador” of Spanish culture.
Hackler chose to begin his undergraduate studies at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., because of the school’s exchange program to Oviedo, a small city in Northern Spain.
“I wanted to go where there is no English spoken,” said Hackler, “and I had a chance to really mingle with locals and even live with a Spanish family.”
In Oviedo, he fell in love with the Spanish culture. The wines were “incredible, inexpensive — at about two American dollars” and should be accompanied with an appreciation of the Spanish lifestyle, including, as Spanish Vines literature proclaims, “family, a good joke, a delicious meal,” he said.
In Spain he also conceived of the philosophy that would become his company’s slogan: “Entender es Disfrutar!”
“It came to me in Spanish first,” Hackler said, laughing. “It means, ‘To understand is to enjoy,’ and that is the way I approach things. I want to get involved, get into the culture and that is the way to truly enjoy something.”
His immersion in Spanish life included weekly lunches at a restaurant in Oviedo owned by Francisco Javier Alvarez Arrieta. Hackler and Arrieta became friends and talked about using the restaurant owner’s contacts to export Spanish wine and food products to the U.S., thus planting the seeds of what would become Spanish Vines.
Building a brand
While abroad, Hackler was accepted into the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
“I wanted to go there because U.S. News and World Report ranked it as the No. 1 undergraduate business school in the nation,” he said. As of August 2008, the program has remained at the top of the magazine’s prestigious rankings for 12 consecutive years. Hackler added, “I was so glad that the best school I could go to is right here in South Carolina.”
Hackler’s father is Joe Hackler, a restaurateur in South Carolina’s Grand Strand and well known for the Old Pro’s Table, a North Myrtle Beach fine dining institution for more than 20 years. “I worked in every aspect of his businesses,” Josh Hackler said, “and now I rely on him to advise me in mine.”
Once Hackler arrived at the USC business school, he immediately sought out instructors Dean Kress and Bill Sandberg of the management faculty. Kress said he was impressed by Hackler from the start.
“He got my attention. We don’t get a lot of students wearing coats and ties when they don’t have to,” Kress said. “He was not asking questions, he was asking for help. He knew what he wanted, he had a viable model, and we helped him to refine it.”
Hackler is quick to praise his mentors, “They were just tremendous in helping me think through what I wanted to do. They drilled me, challenged me to think about what it was that I was trying to create.”
Kress suggested that Hackler approach Joel Stevenson, the director of the USC Columbia Technology Incubator, about his newly-incorporated company joining that program. The largest of its kind in the state, the USC Columbia Incubator is a partnership with the university, the city of Columbia and Midlands Technical College. It offers business startups (or restarts) a supportive environment to grow.
The National Policy Research Council in 2006 named South Carolina as a top 10 “Hot State for Entrepreneurs” and Stevenson said, “We like to think our resources — professional mentoring, affordable facilities, access to seed capital, service provider networks and computer networks — are a few reasons why.”
Hackler polished and presented his business plan, first to a student panel, then to the incubator’s advisory council, which includes successful entrepreneurs and business strategists. They welcomed his fledgling business with office space, a small bit of startup money and USC as a partner.
“You have the credibility and resources of the entire university behind you,” Hackler said.
According to Stevenson, the research and the brain trust is there. It’s up to the incubator companies to take advantage of them. “Josh Hackler did,” he said. With Joe Hackler as the primary investor, Spanish Vines began shipping wines. Their first customer, Green’s Discount Beverage, agreed to carry the new brand in all of its stores.
“Even when we had logistics problems at first, they stood by their word and carried our wine,” Josh Hackler said.
Class partners
A year ago, Hackler met Joshua Rohr, in Supply Chain Operations Management class. Rohr, who grew up in Switzerland and speaks five languages, had also sought out the Moore School because of its international business reputation. After working together on Spanish Vines as a class project, Hackler knew that he had found his executive vice-president. “With him,” Hackler said, “the product has gone to the next level.”
Now, Spanish Vines’ wines are sold throughout South Carolina and North Carolina at Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market and Lowes Foods. The label is featured in Columbia’s trendier, upscale bars and restaurants. In August, the Harris Teeter grocery chain agreed to carry Spanish Vines in an increasing number of its North Carolina stores and will introduce the brand to its Virginia market.
“We see people come with startup brands, usually industry veterans. Both are younger than I am used to dealing with, but they have good — no, excellent — product, price and packaging,” said Ed Cook, director of wines for Harris Teeter.
Millennial men
Along with product, price and packaging, Spanish Vines also offers potential. Rohr outlined their ambitious plans: “In two years, we plan to saturate the Southeast, and in five years become a national brand.”
Hackler added, “I want to create a national brand for Spanish products, something I could not if I were a regular importer. Since Javier Arrietta, who is now officially the Spanish Vines broker in Spain, has connections to wineries, producers of meats and cheeses, we decided to become a resource for American consumers.”
Young American consumers means those aged 21-35 and better known as the Millennials — Hackler’s own generation. This age group is technologically savvy, curious and brand loyal.
According to the Wine Market Council, the Millennial market chooses imported wine about 40% of the time, more than the two previous generations.
This fall, Spanish Vines launched a highly interactive Web site/social network/travel blog that will be, in essence, a portal to learn more about the leisure culture of Spain.
“The main idea of our site is not to convince people to simply buy our wines and products, but understand where it comes from and how it is enjoyed,” Hackler said.
Man of La Mancha
Hackler has learned that assuming the role of cultural ambassador goes both ways. Besides traveling to two or three states on a weekly basis, Hackler also meets at least once a quarter with his suppliers in Spain, where he conducts all business in Spanish.
One place he visits is La Mancha, Spain, with prime farmland for growing certain grapes. La Mancha’s Finca Venta de Don Quijote, a three-generation-old vineyard and winery, supplies Spanish Vines with most of its selections.
“I spend a lot of time explaining the U.S. market to them because we are so different from the Spanish Old World concept of selling wines,” Hackler said.
So, he must educate his vintners about the people who will be buying and drinking their wines. “We are introducing a fresh, new approach to everything, down to the style of labels. That includes a description of the wines in Spanish.”
For instance, Spanish Vines’ newest wine comes from Cheste, Spain, and is a 2007 Moscatel named “La Loca,” meaning “the crazy girl.” Hackler hopes that the off-beat labeling will also endear his brand with a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking population in the Southeast, one that has proven to be consistently loyal to Latina brands.
Tomorrow … the world
Among tougher wine critics, Spanish Vines’ wines have already garnered awards. Its 2006 Tempranillo won a Silver Medal at the Madrid International Wine Fair. It was also named a “Best Buy” by Wine Enthusiast magazine and given an 87-point rating (out of 100) from the Daily Wine Guide. The 2007 vintage of the Tempranillo won a Gold Medal in Belgium’s esteemed Concurso Mundial de Bruselas.
Spain, as a producer, has had some catching up to do, however, because it did not enter the wine export market until the end of the Marco Communist dictatorship in the 1970s. Small vineyards welcome Spanish Vines in as much a matter of pride as of profit. They want to be recognized, by both the old and new worlds, as producers of good wines.
Spanish vintners, if they keep their current pace, do not have to worry. European wine industry statistics project that Spain will overtake France in worldwide wine production by the year 2015. By that time, the U.S. will be the world’s largest wine consumer, also ahead of France.
Spain also has the most wineland acreage in the world and is the world’s No. 2 travel destination, meaning Spanish Vines might be on to something big — and getting bigger.
The next phase of Spanish Vines imports has already begun. Their selection of Manchego cheese, a variety considered to be that country’s best, will arrive in American grocery stores by the end of the year.
And, as of this past spring, Hackler can add his undergraduate business degree to “recent achievements” on his resume. His executive vice president, Joshua Rohr, graduates this December.
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