This visit to Babich Winery,  for the School of Business, was to show us how an export and agricultural business operates. 

Our visit began with an introduction to the history of Babich Wines. Andre Babich explained to us the history behind his family-owned business. From immigrating to New Zealand and looking for work, Andre’s grandfather developed a love for wine making and that passion carried on through to Andre. 

We were given the opportunity to tour their facility and see every process from growing the grapes, then turning the juices into wine, bottling and exporting. From this, it puts into perspective how labour-intensive wine making and the agriculture industry are, as a whole.

After the tour, we sat down and dove deep into the business and administrative side of Babich Wines. Here we learnt how extremely difficult it is to produce a high-quality crop. How many factors, such as Mother Nature, can make or break their business. Also, with exporting their products, seeing how real-world conflicts can affect the viability of their business. An example of this is the tariffs in place for exporting to the USA. Through this, Andre explained the actions Babich wines have taken to combat this. One of them is opening up a distributor in the United States to lower the tariffs. 

From this trip, we have gained valuable insight into the logistics of exporting products and establishing a reputation. As well as understanding the importance of consistency for your customers.