Problem
Beaujolais Nouveau is one type of red wine produced in the Beaujolais region of France using Gamay grapes. Unlike most red wines that have a longer production cycle, Beaujolais Nouveau is fermented for just a few weeks, thus preserving the fresh, fruity quality of the grapes (referred as "early wines" in France). It is type of relatively inexpensive wine that is easy to drink, targeting mass market. The wine is grown and harvested at around 400 small farms in Beaujolais region, located about 50 kilometers north of Lyon (in comparison, Champagne makers are mostly in other regions, notably Burgundy and Bordeaux). It has been a tradition to release the wine for sale on the third Thursday of November, meaning that the 2022 Beaujolais Nouveau day is 17 Nov in France. This is the end of the year's harvest, often a good time for winemakers and the public to relax and celebrate. Some claimed that the Beaujolais Nouveau Day celebration can be dated back to the 1800s.
George Ng operates a wine distributing company in Hong Kong. In addition to the local market, his company also serves markets in Japan, Korea and Singapore. Although over the years an increasing number of drinkers are starting to try out Beaujolais Nouveau, George's company was not able to make a large profit due to various challenges. The number one challenge is the peaked/concentrated logistics demand. Apparently, the wine consumption is the highest during and right after the Beaujolais Nouveau day, and thus winery and distributors are working hard to deliver the "first bottles" to different markets around the globe. In fact, before 1985 the day was set on 15 Nov. This means the release day may fall into a weekend during which the logistics system stops, and thus the third Thursday in November has been chosen to avoid such a problem. Although the logistics systems from Europe to Asia generally work well, the concentrated wine shipping demand around the release date could drive-up the price substantially. Even then, capacity booking will have to be made well in advance.
Another major challenge is the quality control. In Asia, the production and distribution of faked wine has become a major issue. It was estimated by some industry analysts that in 2017 the sale of faked wine reached US$15 billion. Although the main target of faked wine has been expensive wines such as the Château Lafite Rothschild, George noticed that some faked Beaujolais Nouveau wines are being sold in the regional markets including Japan, which is the wine' largest export market in Asia.
Despite all these challenges, George believes that Beaujolais Nouveau could represent a major potential growth market with the increasing middle-income population in Asia. However, the peaked/concentrated demand of the wine making it challenging to develop a good yet economical logistics system for the wine. After attending Information System courses, he felt that the whole supply chain of Beaujolais Nouveau may benefit from improved operations with the support of better designed Logistics Information System (LIS). In fact, certain business processes may be improved with the support of LIS, including the integration of data analytics applications, and new IT technologies.
Task
Identify at least two business needs for improving the distribution and logistics operations of Beaujolais Nouveau. Explain why these needs are important to address, how stakeholders in the supply chain could benefit if such business needs can be properly addressed.