The standard industry lead time for custom-label wine in California is six to twelve weeks from order to delivery. Our program's lead time is one to two weeks. The difference is not magic; it is a structural rearrangement of where the bottlenecks sit. Below, the honest numbers.
Where the standard six weeks goes
Two weeks for label artwork to clear the printer's queue, because the printer is running other orders. One week for label proof approval, because the printer's account manager works on the customer's schedule but the customer is busy. Two weeks for label printing and shipping to the bottling line. One week for bottling line scheduling, because the bottling line is shared across multiple custom-label clients. One week for delivery. The customer's bottle has waited in queue for five of the six weeks.
Where our two weeks go
One day for label artwork because the studio prints what the customer designs without manual artwork redrawing. Same-day approval because the customer approves in the studio rather than via email. Three days for printing because the printer is our own and runs only our orders. Two days for bottling because our bottling slot is dedicated. Five days for delivery. The total is approximately two weeks.
The structural enabler
We control the label printer and we hold bonded inventory of the wine. The customer's order does not wait in queue for any third party. The studio's design is the printer's input file. The bonded wine is ready to bottle. The bottling line slot is reserved. Each of these is the kind of operational decision that, made in advance, removes weeks from the customer's lead time.