As climate disruptions accelerate and supply chain complexity increases, wine and spirits producers must rethink their planning strategies. Beyond Plans, a consulting firm and exclusive Anaplan integration partner, supports industry leaders in transforming their operational management by blending tradition and agility through connected planning.

Balancing Heritage and Uncertainty

As a pillar of French cultural heritage, the wine and spirits sector today faces a dual challenge: preserving the excellence of its products while adapting to an increasingly unpredictable environment. Frost, drought, and hail are becoming more frequent, disrupting production cycles and undermining traditional forecasting models. At the same time, shifting demand, regulatory pressure, and increasing scrutiny of inventory management are adding new layers of complexity.

In this environment, the ability to anticipate, simulate, and quickly adjust production, sourcing, and distribution plans has become a critical competitive advantage.

Traditional Tools Show Their Limits

Historically, planning in this sector has relied on fragmented tools: spreadsheets, isolated legacy systems, and informal exchanges between departments. While this approach helped preserve a “house touch,” its limitations are now evident:

• Fragmented data: each department (production, finance, logistics, sales) works with its own data, leading to inconsistencies and misunderstandings.
• Lack of agility: manual data consolidation slows decision-making, even as disruptions call for fast adjustments.
• Overstock or shortages: without an end-to-end view, it’s hard to anticipate actual needs, optimize inventory levels, and control costs without affecting service quality.

Connected Planning: A Lever for Agility

This is where connected planning, enabled by platforms like Anaplan, offers a game-changing solution. More than just a tool, it represents a shift in mindset: all departments collaborate in real time on a single source of truth and can simulate the impact of any decision across the entire value chain.

Concrete Benefits for Wine & Spirits Producers

• Anticipating climate risks: by integrating weather data, historical yields, and forward-looking scenarios, producers can simulate the impact of frost or drought on future harvests and adjust production and sourcing plans accordingly.
• Inventory optimization: real-time visibility into stock levels, expiration dates, and logistical constraints helps reduce overstock while avoiding shortages, even for long-cycle products like aged spirits.
• Stronger collaboration: the platform connects all stakeholders—production, finance, sales, logistics—streamlining communication and accelerating decision-making. Trade-offs are easier, risks are better managed.
• More accurate forecasts: with AI and machine learning integration, forecasting models improve in accuracy, even over extended horizons (up to 10 years for some spirits).

Use Case: Tangible Results in the Field

Global players like Bacardi and CVH Spirits have already adopted this approach—with notable results. At CVH Spirits, Anaplan implementation improved demand forecast accuracy by 20%, stabilized production, and reduced stock volumes without compromising customer service. Teams now benefit from real-time key indicators, allowing them to shift focus to analysis and strategic decisions.

Beyond operational gains, company culture evolves: planning becomes a collaborative, agile process capable of adapting to market shifts and climate events.

Beyond Plans: Industry Expertise Meets Operational Excellence

At Beyond Plans, we believe that the success of a connected planning project lies as much in technology as in human support. With recognized experience in the Anaplan ecosystem and deep knowledge of the wine and spirits sector, our team is involved at every stage:

• Assessing existing processes and identifying key improvement areas
• Designing customized models tailored to each house’s reality
• Training and change management to ensure team buy-in
• Post-deployment support to build capabilities and drive ongoing tool evolution

In the end, our clients report a profound transformation of their operational management—with tangible results in performance, resilience, and innovation capacity.