Sherry dynasty achieves sustainable wine production and EU compliance

First up, a bit of trivia: Did you know that around the turn of the 15th century, William Shakespeare indulged in sherry in London taverns and featured the wine in eight of his plays? It’s true.

The first sherry vines were brought to the Jerez Region of Spain by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC. Indeed, archeological excavations found the remains of their wine presses there. From Jerez, they exported sherry throughout the Mediterranean, trading with the Romans. And while civilizations have come and gone, their wine carries on. 

If you love watching “period pieces” based on life in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries (like I do), then you’ll be familiar with sherry as the storied Spanish wine imported by the British that traveled on sailing ships to be enjoyed worldwide. As the demand for sherry exploded in the 1800s, many entrepreneurs took to cultivating the Palomino Fino vines, but few of the original Jerez families are still in production five generations later, like the family of Manuel-María González Ángel.

A modern and conscientious enterprise springs from its iconic roots in Spain

Since González Ángel planted the first vineyards in 1835, the family business has focused on producing high-quality sherries. Today, with more than 900 employees, they cultivate more than 2,000 hectares of vineyards in Spain, Mexico, and Chile, and distribute their wine and spirits to more than 100 countries worldwide. 

At González Byass, plastic packaging has been used in a variety of ways from encasing corks to safely transporting bottles. However, one of the biggest challenges it faces today in the consumer products industry is minimizing the use of plastic. Over 380 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide annually, about half of which is for single use. That’s 190 million tons of plastic trash every year. 

To reduce excess waste, the European Union (EU) instituted a plastic packaging levy in 2021 for its members. Following suit, Spain imposed a tax on single-use plastic packaging, and waste incineration and disposal in landfills, with the goal of making all packaging in Spain recyclable by 2030. With a history of innovation, González Byass is committed to a circular economy by eliminating waste, circulating materials, and conserving nature.

However, it was easier said than done. In order to move away from plastic packaging and meet its obligations under the new EU regulations, González Byass needed real-time, comprehensive information about its global operations and suppliers. Unfortunately, its legacy software and processes lacked the transparency to access and manage information efficiently. Collecting relevant data was a daunting manual task, given the different data streams, declarations, and timelines of locations in multiple regions and countries. 

Renewing sustainable production and procurement while meeting compliance

To extend its commitment to sustainable production and procurement, González Byass needed a holistic view of its operations across its value chain. Greater transparency also would help ease the difficulty they were having complying with circular-economy regulations. A centralized software solution that automatically delivers operational, supplier, and regulatory data, would help them meet regulations by focusing on regeneration, related to the purchase, use, and management of plastic.

The company decided to replace its legacy software with a comprehensive solution that would make operations and products more sustainable. They sought a solution that would provide the transparency the business needed to improve supply chain operations as well as help the family business:

• Gain better insights about company waste and recycling to make informed design and environmental impact decisions
• Improve access and management of the company’s global operational, supplier and regulatory obligation data pertaining to the circular economy
• Ease compliance with new, governmental circular-economy regulations with timely, centralized data and automation 

99% recovery of generated waste and 100% recycled paper, glass, and plastic

It took only 5 months to implement SAP Responsible Design and Production, a cloud-deployed solution that provides González Byass with the real-time data and insights needed to calculate extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations, taxes on plastic, and corporate commitments to optimize material choices. With real-time data and insights, González Byass has implemented processes to recover 99% of the waste generated during production and recycle 100% of paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic.

Now González Byass can accurately calculate fees and taxes according to the latest regulations in key markets and optimize material choices. It can measure the materials used, how measurements change over time, and how materials influence tax and sustainability KPIs. The solution gives the family business deeper insights through a lifecycle view of costs along with the environmental impacts of design choices. And it helps significantly reduce potential risks from future regulations. With comprehensive information and reporting, the company’s suppliers are also empowered to boost their sustainability efforts.

The solution has also eased compliance. Data can be accessed across different countries’ operations and value chains to make environmental product declarations for each country and calculate obligations in key markets quickly and accurately. With the capability to reduce regulatory costs, identify cost-effective tradeoffs, and simplify decision-making, the solution is saving González Byass time and money. 

It even benefits consumers who are concerned about sustainability. With the solution, the company can easily provide information about the environmental impacts of the González Byass products they purchase. 

The people + planet plan for sustainable practices across generations

Implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals is part of the companies’ multigenerational plan for people and planet that represents the González family’s ongoing commitment to taking care of the land through sustainable agricultural practices and sets the path for generations to come.

“The wine we make is a product of the land, and we need to take care of the land,” says Braza Valle. “At González Byass, sustainability is considered from every perspective and in every step of production, from the vineyard to the consumer.” 

By supporting a circular product portfolio and zero-waste approach with a comprehensive, global solution, the González family can meet its commitment to the land, comply with current legislation, and be good world citizens.

An SAP Innovation Award winner

González Byass received an 2024 SAP Innovation Award as a Sustainability Hero for Consumer Products. See the pitch deck to learn about the software architecture or read the success story to understand the sherry producer’s multi-generational commitment to caring for people and planet.