Company Name: Domaine du Chant d'Éole

Location: Belgium, Europe

Industry: Food and Beverage

Established: 2010

Company Size: 50+

Odoo Users: <50

Hosting Type: Odoo.sh

Apps: CRM, Sales, PoS, Purchase, Accounting, Website, Inventory, Manufacturing, eCommerce, Email Marketing, Employees, Time Off. 
Implementing partner: The Service Company (TSC)

Renowned for its prestigious batches of wine, the winery Domaine du Chant d’Éole is located in Belgium, near the French border. Facing rapid growth and having great ambitions, the company couldn’t keep using disjointed tools to handle the daily operations. When the decision was made to migrate to an all-in-one management system, Odoo naturally stood out and proved to be the solution to fuel all of the winery’s projects. 

Switching to an all-in-one management system to keep up with growth

Located in Quévy, near the border between Belgium and France, the Domaine du Chant d’Éole is a renowned Belgian winery founded in 2010. Famous for its batches awarded multiple times, “Chant d’Éole” was born from the encounter between a winemaker from Champagne and a family of farmers from Belgium. Today, a range of sparkling wines are the pride of the vineyard, all produced the traditional way.

Facing a growing success, the company needed software fully integrated to manage the accounting, the daily operations of the business, and the website. So far, the team had to manually insert the revenue, the sales, and other relevant numbers within the accounting system, Alpha, which was hindering growth and wasting valuable time. The company was managing the content of the website through a WordPress CMS, and sending emails through Mailchimp. A separate point of sale system was set up onsite. And finally, numerous Excel sheets were used for sales, bookings, waiting lists, etc.

Moreover, several other challenges were encountered by the Domaine du Chant d’Éole: 

Managing the inventory: Due to the enormous success of the wine, the Domaine du Chant d’Éole had to set up pre-bookings and waiting lists. Therefore, having a seamless inventory management was key. Before implementing Odoo, the company was checking the inventory by sight, dealing with bookings via an Excel file and manually entering data into the accounting tool. 

 Handling and organizing vineyard visits, events, and venue rentals: Besides producing and selling wine, the company also organizes visits and events, and rents spaces at the venue. It was critical to benefit from a software providing the necessary features, instead of writing down everything on a paper agenda.

Handling many different activities directly or indirectly linked to the vineyard, the company was searching for a powerful solution to manage it all through simple yet functional integrations. 

Setting up the right tools to power the results of the Domaine du Chant d’Éole

Being a Belgian, and moreover, a Walloon software provider, Odoo naturally stood out as the solution the Domaine du Chant d’Éole needed. 

“We did not consider any other tool. The fact that Odoo is a Belgian and Walloon company just made sense. We did not hesitate for a minute.” - Hubert Ewbank - CEO and founder of the Domaine du Chant d’Éole.  

Moreover, the winery was seduced by the excellent value for money and already had a lot of faith in The Service Company (TSC), an Odoo Gold implementation partner.

Guided by TSC, the Domaine du Chant d’Éole implemented the software, proceeding step by step. The idea was to make the most of Odoo’s standard features, thus minimizing the need for specific or complex custom development. 

TSC and the Domaine du Chant d’Éole followed a strategic approach to make sure the implementation of Odoo went smoothly: 

Sales, Accounting, Point of Sale, CRM: The accounting of all entities has been centralized within Odoo. All the necessary points of sale have been set up within the winery.  

Manufacturing and inventory: The winemaking is handled within Odoo from the moment the wine leaves the vats until it is bottled and sold. A proper inventory ensures good traceability of wine batches, vintages, and packaging.

Stock and allocation of wine bottles: A tailored module has been created to manage allocations through the online store, with dedicated data per customer, product, and year, and a specific reporting giving a global overview of bookings.  

Events: The Events application has been configured in order to create, promote and manage all the events organized by the winery, such as the guided tours, festivals, afterworks, etc. In addition, the Rental module has been set up to handle the rentals of rooms and spaces, providing a clear overview and avoiding double bookings.

Website & eCommerce: Finally, a beautiful and powerful website, with an eCommerce platform, has been put in place to showcase everything this incredible winery has to offer. Products, events and even specific seasonal menus are sold online, with the placed order directly dealt with in Odoo’s platform. 

Email marketing: Previously using Mailchimp, the company migrated the marketing emailings into Odoo. A smart button has been added to the emails sent in order to be able to take action on those sent but not opened, by sending a reminder.

As the vineyard is rapidly and continuously growing and evolving, it was essential to work hand in hand with a partner and software both capable of scaling at this fast-paced rhythm. And that has proven to be a huge success! 

“Thanks to TSC and Odoo, my team and I can focus on what matters the most: our core business. Therefore, we can continue to create exceptional bubbly wines.” - Hubert Ewbank - CEO and founder of the Domaine du Chant d’Éole. 

A bubbling success encountered by the Domaine du Chant d’Éole and boosted by Odoo

Odoo brought numerous benefits to the Domaine du Chant d’Éole, contributing to its growth and expansion in new areas of the business: 

Business, company and team’s growth: The Domaine du Chant d’Éole started with 2 branches, and now has 6. From 5 employees at the very beginning, the company went to more than 100. The vineyard had 9 hectares of vines at the start of Odoo’s project, and now it has increased to 54 hectares. And finally, the number of bottles produced went from 50,000 to 600,000 per year.

Surge in visitor numbers: More than 200,000 visitors are registered every year. Lots of them purchased their tickets or booked a table in the restaurant online via Odoo.

Centralization of operations: All data, tasks, operations, and workflows are centralized in one single platform. Accounting and invoicing are now directly handled via the management system. 

Increased efficiency: The efficiency of internal processes has considerably improved ever since Odoo has been implemented, with the ability to automate certain aspects of the business. 

Multi-company management: The multi-company option simplified the use made of the system for every aspect of the business. 

Global and real-time overview on data: Benefiting from a global overview of all the metrics, with detailed reports, helps think more strategically, make informed decisions and guide sales and accounting. 

Simplified inventory: Managing the wine bottles allocations is now very simple and efficient. 

Optimizing entirely the way things were handled allowed the Domaine du Chant d’Éole to focus on what the winemakers do best: producing bubbling wines. With the time saved, the team could concentrate on continuing the expansion of the vineyard and the manufacture of new batches. In parallel, several new projects have been made possible, such as opening a brasserie and a Michelin-star restaurant, providing more spaces for events, offering a cosmetics brand based on grape and vine ingredients, etc. 

“The Domaine du Chant d’Éole is a winery. But it is also a culinary hub, with 2 restaurants, and it has an events division organizing activities and renting seven spaces for private and corporate events. Given the complexity of these combined activities, Odoo provides valuable help.“ - Amélie Wuillaume - Communication & marketing manager at the Domaine du Chant d’Éole.