SND: How do you see the fall and winter season shaping up for the U.S. wine business?

Hoopes: It’s no secret that the wine industry in total is in some challenging times right now. However, we’re really optimistic because consumer confidence has had a modest recovery since last summer. And while we see the CPG price points rising in all categories for folks in the stores, we feel really good going into the holiday selling season that we’ll continue to see people engage in the category both on- and off-premise.

On the other side, as prices have risen, we’ve seen consumers shift to value retailers and value brands. They are trying to stretch their dollars, so they’re shopping the deals and promotions, and we expect to see that through the holiday season as well. So we expect to see retailers leaning into the over-$12 price category with some promotional activity to spur the consumer to continue to engage. We benefit from having a very broad portfolio that enables us to serve consumers across multiple price points.

SND: The Wine Group’s portfolio has expanded with a number of premium brands in recent years. How is progress on that front?

Hoopes: Over the past 10 years, we’ve quadrupled our annual retail sales dollars at the $12-plus price points, going from $100 million in retail sales to over $400 million today. So we’ve leaned into that area with legacy brands like Benziger, Chloe, and Imagery, and we’ve been doing a lot of work with our recently acquired brands like Cooper and Thief—which has a lot of runway—the Dreaming Tree, and the Charles Smith portfolio. So there’s a lot for us to be excited about in that category.

SND: The Wine Group welcomed three new executives recently, including new chief marketing officer Helen Kurtz. Should we expect broad changes in the company’s approach looking ahead?

Hoopes: Those were planned retirements, and those executives had amazing careers and made great impacts on the company. With that being said, any time we have an opportunity to bring in new diverse leadership that has fresh perspectives, we’re really excited about that. We’ve always strived to respond to changing consumer trends, and this team continues to position us well to bring new thinking and new ideas into the category.

SND: Franzia has seen marketing and innovation pushes over the past few years. How does the future look for Franzia?

Hoopes: Franzia remains the number-one selling wine globally by volume. It has a very a dedicated, loyal consumer, and we’re continuing to see them support the brand. From an innovation standpoint, we recently did an LTO on a Summer Sunset Blush, which consumers really responded to, and we’ve got a few more LTOs coming in a few months. Franzia’s consumers trust the brand, and they continue to want new things from us.

SND: You recently realigned with Southern Glazer’s from a distributor perspective. How do you see that move benefiting the business moving forward?

Hoopes: It was a big move, to say the least, to become nationally aligned. But we’re seeing the benefits already. We know the coast to coast coverage enhances our ability to penetrate national accounts together. We’re making headway as partners within the e-commerce arena, and the ability for us to share and utilize that robust industry data and insights together to really make change in the industry is what we’re most excited about.