Like many other woodworking companies, Wine Cellar Innovations’ headquarters has a large supply of lumber, components and woodworking machinery, both old and new. Unlike other businesses, however, it also holds a painter’s studio, a glassworker’s studio, a machine shop, a refrigeration shop and, naturally, thousands of bottles of wine. Wine Cellar Innovations of Cincinnati, OH, has developed a very successful business for both custom wine cellars and production wine racks and kits. The company used to be known as Wine Racks Unlimited, but it changed its name to reflect what the company can provide.

“It really does encompass a lot more than wine racks,” says Jim Deckebach, owner, explaining the customers who order a custom wine cellar have a variety of options. “We have hand-painted murals, stained glass, hand-painted tiles and built-in lights. We manufacture the doors from scratch, and we etch and paint the glass and add it to the doors.”

Even the company’s AutoCAD and Studio VIZ designs come with several different options. Depending on the price, customers can opt for a two-dimensional, threedimensional, or three-dimensional four-color digital file, showing the proposed design. They can even get a “virtual reality” QuickTime file, which lets them move their cursor around a 360-degree view of their future wine cellar.

The custom wine cellars can cost from a couple of hundred dollars up to $150,000. While many of the custom pieces go into residences, Wine Cellar Innovations also does about 20 percent of its work in the commercial market, including restaurants, hotels and wine stores. The most expensive pieces are the ones that feature the hand-painted frescoes, murals, tiles and windows. Of those extras, only the tiles are done by outside artisans.

The muralist paints pieces of varying shapes, sizes and styles. “She’s making them to our design,” Deckebach says. “For our purposes, about 95 percent of it refers to themes with wine – wine, wine-making, vineyards or grapes.” The glass artist is able to sandblast a variety of images into glass; he also makes stained glass when needed. Many of the decorative options are available for browsing on the company’s Web site, www.winecellarinnovations.com.

The company has sent its employees around the world to install its completed custom cellars, from Switzerland to the Caribbean. “We really know our product well. Although the customer is paying for travel time, lodging and associated expenses, we’ll do it a lot faster than someone else would,” Deckebach says. He adds that the installers always are prepared with additional tools and materials for on-site corrections. “I’d say that even though we call, checking on dimensions, 85 percent of the rooms are different than the dimensions that we are given,” he says.

RACKING UP SALES
Custom work accounts for about 70 percent of Wine Cellar Innovations’ annual sales dollar volume, which totaled $14 million last year. Nevertheless, the company’s wine rack kits make up more than half of its production. “Our custom work represents a higher dollar value, but not a higher volume,” say Deckebach.

Kits are available in redwood, mahogany or pine and range in price from $29.95 to $785.00. Customers have plenty of styles available, from a simple rack or curved corner rack to fancier options like a waterfall display or diamond cube. One popular series of kits is the Simple Racking Solution, wine racks that require no tools except for an Allen wrench that’s included in the kit. Wine Cellar Innovations developed a cap/bolt system that, according to the company’s catalog, enables a customer to “set up your own custom wine cellar in minutes-- even if you’re all thumbs!”

Wine Cellar Innovations has its own team of sales people and local dealers and creates and distributes its own catalogs. Its products appear in several wine catalogs, too. The company has also turned some of its wine store customers into a sales force. “Wine stores will buy our product to use themselves, and then they will turn around and sell our products to their customers,” Deckebach explains. “We’ve convinced them that it’s good business, because if their customers put in a wine cellar, they’ll want to fill it up with wine.”

--Custom Woodworking Business (CWB)
April 2003