Wine Industry Executive Profile: Wayne Childress

Wayne Childress

Vice President of Winery Operations
Foster’s Wine Estates
P.O. Box 4500, Napa 94558; 707-259-4560; www.fosterswineestates.com
Professional background: general manager, Paul Masson Cellars & Vineyards, Constellation Brands, 2000–07; general manager, Riverland Vineyards, Constellation Brands, 2000; director of logistics and systems development for West Coast operations, Constellation Brands, 1998–2000; director of materials management, Mission Bell Winery, Constellation Brands, 1996–98; operations manager, senior operations manager and director, Federated Department Stores, 1995–96; maintenance supervisor and operations supervisor, Target Stores, Dayton Hudson Corp., 1993–95; Aviation Operations Officer, U.S. Army, 1982–93
Education: B.A., Frostburg State College, 1982; Target Leadership Academy; Combined Arms & Services Staff School, Helicopter Maintenance Test Pilot School (distinguished graduate), Aviation Maintenance Management Course (distinguished), Aviation Officer’s Advanced Course, Helicopter Flight School and Field Artillery Officer Basic Course, U.S. Army
Staff: 300 full-time, 450 at harvest
Facilities: Nine wineries and one cooperage
Brands (U.S.): Beringer, Meridian, St. Clement, Souverain, Cellar No. 8, Stag’s Leap Winery, Etude, Chateau St. Jean and Greg Norman Estates
Favorite tasks: What I love more than anything is going to the wineries and taking time with the people who make the wine, smelling grapes and fermentation, being there where everything happens and where wine is born. It’s intoxicating.
Admired wine pioneers: One before Prohibition was Paul Masson, who built the sparkling wine business in California when many were not doing that. One after Prohibition was Robert Mondavi, who I met while at Constellation Brands. He was innovative and a risk-taker and about building recognition of California and Napa Valley.
Current reading: “New California Wine” by Matt Kramer gives insights into the strengths of the industry and where it’s going. Also “The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain
 Stress relievers: Reading, walking around the wineries and woodworking
Family: married with five children, ages 16 to 26
Residence: Windsor
Age: 47

NAPA – Wayne Childress oversees day-to-day winemaking, bottling and cooperage operations for Foster’s Wine Estates, one of the nation’s largest wine producers.

It’s part of Australian beer and wine giant Foster’s Group, which runs three distilleries, two cider houses, six breweries, 16 wineries and a cooperage.

In its last fiscal year, Foster’s shipped the equivalent of 38.7 million 9-liter cases of wine globally for about $2 billion in net revenue, including 18 million cases in the Americas for $978 million. The Beringer brand, produced in St. Helena, accounts for roughly 7 million of those cases, and the Meridian brand from the Central Coast makes up another 1 million cases.

Also in the mix are imported wine brands such as Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Rose-mount, Yellowglen and Lind-emans from Australia, Matua Valley and Secret Stone from New Zealand and Castello di Gabbiano from Italy.

Mr. Childress came to Foster’s early this year to manage Foster’s nine California wineries as well as The Winemaker’s Cooperage in Cloverdale. For 11 years previously he was with Constellation Brands, first in organizing logistics and operations for the New York-based company’s West Coast wineries and then as general manager of Riverland Vineyards and Paul Masson Cellars & Vineyards.

“It’s been a fantastic transition,” he said. “I manage nine wineries in California with levels from boutique wineries to custom crush to larger brands to our own cooperage for making barrels used in all our brands.”

Mr. Childress came to the wine business from the military and retail logistics. Trained as an Army artillery officer and helicopter maintenance and test pilot during the 11 years after college, he said it was difficult to convince companies to hire someone with his experience. Yet he convinced Dayton Hudson, now Target Corp., that his work on helicopters would keep forklifts and conveyors running through the night in a Target distribution warehouse in Fontana.

That led to a position with Federated Department Stores overseeing returns to an East Los Angeles warehouse from Macy’s stores. His boss and professional mentor was Michael Othites, who had come from Pepsi Cola and Frito Lay. When Mr. Othites moved on to Canandaigua Wine, now called Constellation Brands, as general manager of Mission Bell Winery in the Central Valley, he asked Mr. Childress to help him improve the winery’s transportation and distribution.

“I learned hands-on about cellar crushing, cellar operations, bottling and winemaking,” he said.

That led to analysis and planning of logistics, finances and systems for all Canandaigua’s West Coast operations.

In 2000, his operational and fiscal fix-it experience was called on again, this time with Canandaigua’s Riverland Vineyards winery in Gonzales. Within the year he turned the business around with moves such as reopening the tasting room and hosting special events again.

When asked to stay on as general manager, he declined so he wouldn’t have to relocate his family. Instead, he was given the helm of Paul Masson Cellars & Vineyards in Madera and stayed there until Constellation sold the winery and the Almaden and Inglenook brands to The Wine Group in February of this year for $134 million. The winery processed 75,000 tons of grapes a year, and helped plan a cost-effective shift of such brands toward the bag-in-box format.

“It was a graduate-level course in people management, planning, wine-making and cellar management,” he said about his time at Paul Masson.

Mr. Childress came to Foster’s Wine Estates at a time of transition for the Australia-based parent company’s wine operations. Foster’s Wine Estates sprouted from the 2000 acquisition of Beringer Wine Estates for a then-record $1.2 billion, adding direct-sales-focused Windsor Vineyards the same year for $100 million.

In the past few years, Foster’s has shifted underperforming assets, selling the Chateau Souverain winery in Geyserville to filmmaker-vintner Francis Ford Coppola for a rumored $34 million in late 2006 and moving the brand to the Asti winery. Early last year, Foster’s sold its club and direct-sales operations, including sales of the International Wine Accessories and Windsor Vineyards organizations to Leslie Rudd, who owns Rudd Estate in Napa Valley.