Rack & Riddle, the leading sparkling wine producer in the country, announced Wednesday that it is shutting down its facility in Lodi and consolidating all operations in Sonoma County.
“Cutting costs and being efficient is at the top of the list of what businesses are having to do these days,” Lodi Winegrape Commission Executive Director Stuart Spencer said.
That’s exactly what has happened at Rack & Riddle, the leading custom sparkling wine producer in the country.
According to the company’s COO and General Manager Mark Garaventa, they are relocating their operations from Lodi to Healdsburg in Sonoma County.
The reason for the move is that Rack & Riddle is planning on developing a new Sparkling Innovation Park, which consolidates key operations in one location, leaving San Joaquin County behind.
“Wine and grape industry is one of the most value-added agricultural crops out there,” Spencer explained. “The conversion of grapes to wine and sparkling wine adds a lot of value. That value is in the form of people working, supplies purchased, and activities undertaken. When you eliminate this from a community, it does have broader economic impacts and none of us want to see businesses closing down and moving out.”
“While this facility supported near-term growth following an earlier acquisition, operating at a distance from our core sparkling operations created inefficiencies and no longer aligns with our long-term business strategy,” Garaventa said in a statement.
This means 35 people are losing their jobs in an industry already struggling.
“Jobs lost in a community is really about people and families,” San Joaquin County Employment and Economic Development Department Deputy Director Nicole Snyder shared. “That’s income that supports the households, schools, and local businesses. The wine industry is part of the Lodi identity and economy, so when one business closes, the impact can be felt by growers, suppliers, and small businesses throughout the area.”
Garaventa says these employees received a four-month notice before closure, along with transition support and exit packages, but its impact will be felt.
“We work to connect the affected workers with a couple things. One is Rapid Response Services. That is when on-site services will go out to the employer and support the employees affected,” Snyder continued. “We also can provide them with unemployment insurance benefits. That’s obviously to stabilize their income and then job search assistance and retraining opportunities.”
The way consumers can help is by keeping it local.
“It’s just one less outlet for grapes and wine to go these days and in a challenging marketplace,” Spencer continued. “They’re under a lot of pressure with sparkling wine, with Italian Proseccos. I would encourage our local residents, instead of buying that Prosecco, to buy a California sparkling wine at the grocery store next weekend.”
Rack & Riddle will be adding 20 to 25 new roles at the Healdsburg location in Sonoma County.
They are slowly phasing out operations in Lodi and will close all winemaking and bottling by the end of May.
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