The Bottom Line – How Understanding COGS Can Increase Your Profitability

Understanding your cost of goods sold (COGS) is important to your craft. Armed with this knowledge, you might find a little extra room in your budget to invest in that special project to take your wines to the next level. You won’t know until you start tracking costs and understand core accounting practices, and over time you can use historical data to make better, more informed decisions that increase profitability.
Join Tara Bomberger, vice president of finance at A to Z Wineworks and REX HILL; Erik McLaughlin, CEO at Metis Mergers & Acquisitions; and Bree Stock MW from the Oregon Wine Board as they guide you through case studies that demonstrate how understanding your COGS directly impacts your profitability. You will also learn how the unique Oregon Wine Profit Planner tool can help you make decisions that positively affect your bottom line from the vineyard to winemaking to bottling to sales. Learn best practices, what legally constitutes COGS for the wine industry and how a thorough understanding of these concepts will directly benefit your business’s profitability.
This will be a hands-on session so bring your laptop to begin creating your own profit report using the Oregon Wine Profit Planner. This tool has been specifically designed for the Oregon industry by the OWB using benchmarking data from Oregon research, experts and accountants.

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Speaker Bios

Tara Bomberger

Tara Bomberger is the vice president of finance at Oregon’s largest winery, A to Z Wineworks, located in Newberg. Having joined in 2013, Tara manages the day-to-day accounting operations of the $35 million company, which employs 62 people. Her responsibilities include the production of monthly financial reports; maintenance of a system of accounting records; and a comprehensive set of controls and budgets designed to mitigate risk, control inventory flow and costing, enhance the accuracy of the company’s reported financial results, and ensure that reported results comply with GAAP.

Prior to joining A to Z Wineworks, Tara worked for several smaller wineries and law firms in finance and management roles. Tara is a graduate of the University of Denver School of Law with a master’s degree in Legal Administration and has a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration. She lives in McMinnville with her husband, two children and their handful of a Labrador retriever.

Erik McLaughlin

Erik McLaughlin has 25 years of experience working in virtually all aspects of the fine wine and hospitality industry, having served in senior management roles for both public and private wine companies in Oregon, Washington and California. At Metis, Erik leads a team of experienced professionals who provide and oversee management consulting and M&A advisory services to the alcohol beverage and hospitality sectors.

Erik has been extensively involved in industry groups throughout Oregon and Washington. He has taught and lectured widely on wine and the business of wine and is a frequent guest instructor at both Linfield College’s Wine Studies program and the Institute for Viticulture and Enology at Walla Walla Community College.

Erik graduated cum laude from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon and is a fourth generation native of the Pacific Northwest. He lives in Walla Walla with his wife and their four children. Erik enjoys skiing, coaching youth baseball and spirited, wine-fueled conversations with friends.

Bree Stock

Bree, a Master of Wine specializing in wine education development, joined the Oregon Wine Board in April 2017. Born and raised in Australia, Bree’s career has had an intentionally international perspective. In Canada, sommelier roles in fine dining restaurants took her from Vancouver, BC to Nova Scotia and led to sommelier certifications and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust Diploma. Sales and portfolio management roles have taken her around Australia with one of Australia’s largest family owned wine companies, DeBortoli Wines and to Australia’s pre-eminent modern Spanish and Portuguese importer, The Spanish Acquisition in Melbourne.

Since 2008, Bree has been an independent wine industry management consultant specializing in education program development and sensory training, consulting to some of Australia’s finest independent retailers and wine education programs. She has provided market analysis for wineries and importers, brand analysis and wine business management consulting. Bree is also an experienced international wine judge and has held harvest and consulting positions in Australia, Austria, Portugal and the US.

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