Market research for starting a wine consultancy company in Finland

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the need for and interest in a future wine consultancy company and its services in Finnish restaurants that serve wine with food but do not have a sommelier. Recently, people in Finland have been drinking less spirits and more wine and beer. There are more wine bars and wines on the restaurant menus. Since wine is not originally part of Finnish culture, it does not come naturally to Finns to have wine knowledge. Even people working in the hospitality sector seem to have little of it.

The proposed hypothesis was that restaurant owners, managers, and workers are not confident in their knowledge of wine. Since there is no literature or secondary data about this in Finland, market research is conducted by interviewing people responsible for the wine selection in four restaurants in Finland. One restaurant was chosen in Turku, Tampere, Helsinki, and Lapland.

The interviews were divided into four sections: background information about the interviewee and the selection of wines, wine importers, wine knowledge of the servers, and evaluation of the need for and interest in the wine consultancy company. The data derived from the interviews were conclusive. The hypothesis was correct, and there is a market for the wine consultancy company and its services. The restaurant managers and owners saw the added value of having a wine professional assist with wine list building, wine education for staff and holding wine tastings for customers.