Today we’d like to introduce you to Indira Bayer . Them and their team share their story with us below:
Indira Bayer, originally from the Former Yugoslavia, immigrated to the United States in 1996. Since becoming a US citizen, she worked as an Assistant Vice President of Bank of America’s Small Business Banking, as an Assistance Coordinator and other roles with the US Department of State in the Balkans, and as an Adjunct Lecturer of Accounting at the American University in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
1. Not easy to open the market for unknown product without significant amount of marketing dollars. Hard to break people’s habits of consuming only what they know and what is well advertised.
The world of wine is a big place, and it’s important to encourage wine drinkers to expand their palates by drinking new regions and new varieties. The issues with this can be that:
Most American wine stores do not even have a Balkan wine section.
99.9 percent of American wine drinkers would never venture there if they did.
Even if they did, they’d be intimidated by the names and unwilling to take a chance on these wines
2. Difficult to be a woman in a men dominated industry.
3. Very high learning curve. I did not know anything about industry and it was very expensive to hire attorneys to help me navigate TTB, FDI, State regulations on Alcohol, etc. I had to learn it all to be able to save money.
We’ve been impressed with Wines of Illyria, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Wines of Illyria is a wine import and distribution company, dedicated to bringing wines from the Balkan peninsula to American consumers. This is a one-person, women-owned company, still in a bootstrapping phase of growing business.
I import only premium quality wines and soon crafted, small-batch spirits, and price them so competitively to ensure customers that give us a chance get the highest value products in the market.
Five years ago, I decided to introduce to American Wine Enthusiast only native varieties of the Balkan region- the third Great Peninsula of the Southern Europe once known as Ancient Illyria: Zilavka (ZHI-luv-kah), Tamjanika (TAM-yan-nika), Blatina (BLAH-tee-nah), Vranac (VRAH-natz), Plavac mali (PLAH-vatz MAH-lee) and Trnjak (TER-nyak). Knowing how hard is to pronounce unknown names, I added phonetic spelling to all of our labels. The goal is that these names of grape varieties, in ten years, become just as well-known as Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon.
Another important decision, when starting a company, was to bring naturally produced wines, made of grapes grown with sustainable farming practices. The best compliment to me is when my customers email me and tell me they can now drink wine as my wine does not give them headache nor allergic reaction.
Please help spread the word about our wines by asking your local store to order our wines from Cardel Imports, our distributor in South Carolina or find existing SC retail outlets on our website under “retail locations” tab and buy our wines. You can also order Wines of Illyria from our website www.winesofillyria.com. You will be pleasantly surprised.
In these challenging times of pandemic, that crippled many small businesses, we have some success stories to report. We became vendors of Utah Liquor Control Board. DABC Utah in June of this year purchased three wines: Stone Cuvee, Vranac, and Trnjak, and put them in 12 state-owned Wine and Spirits store around Salt Lake City. We received two reorders since then. We are grateful to Bosnian Americans, American Wine Society of Salt Lake City, and all other customers for helping us become vendors of Utah by requesting our wines from their liquor Control Board and for continuing to buy our wines.
Again with help of our friends and customers, we partnered with Soil Air Selection to distribute our wines in New Jersey and New York States; International Cellars to distribute our wines in Virginia, Maryland, and DC; with Cardel Imports to distribute our wines in South Carolina, Sommerville Enterprises in North Carolina, Grbinich Wines in Georgia, Fine Terroir in Connecticut, BH International in Kentucky, Vin De Garde in Oregon, and starting January Uncorked of New England will be selling our wines in Maine and New Hampshire while M.S. Walker will be our partner in Road Island and Massachusetts.
Our biggest account, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has, two weeks ago, surprised us with an order of 700 cases of products. This might be a small quantity for a large distributor, but for us to get from 21 cases of three different wines they purchased in 2016, placement of 26 products in one hundred Wines and Spirits Premium stores over the following five years, to this number of cases as a single order, gives us wings and assurance that we will be in business for many years to come.
We have worked hard not only to find distributors and retail outlets to sell our wine but have been working tirelessly to educate consumers on our wines as they are so new in the U.S. It is not easy to grow a new brand from scratch and without marketing dollars. We held seminars for Wine Educational Organizations: American Wine Society, Dionysian Society, and Women in Wine Sense; Non-Profit Organizations like the Burlington Bar Association, Road Island Women’s Bar Association, Saint Paul of Princeton Catholic School; and large corporations like Pfizer Pharmaceutical. If you are interested in organizing such event, please contact Indira Bayer, the Founder. She would love to present our wines in person or on Zoom.
Our next project is to create course work material for all schools interested in teaching about the Balkan Peninsula as a wine region, our climate, soil, history, and current wine industry as well as potential to create jobs and eliminate a Brain drain and high unemployment all Balkan countries are experiencing.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Exposure to danger and what we do in the situation that causes a feeling of fear? Do we forget everything and run or face the danger and raise? I was in banking industry for almost twenty years and am very familiar of the meaning of financial risk through working with individuals and business. I have taken risk in my personal life that many people would not dare to. I would consider myself a calculated risk-taker in some regards and risk-averse in the other. I am not a gambler at all. However, I am well aware if we do not risk, we cannot move forward. If one is willing to work extra hard, it is OK to take a risk. Here are few examples that might demonstrate how I have handled risk so far.
Twenty-five years ago, I immigrated to the U.S. without speaking a word of English and my education from home had no meaning nor was going to open opportunities to make a living. I was willing to go to elementary, high school, college, and graduate degree all over again here in the US to ensure I can find a job fit to my capabilities.
I took a risk five years ago when I quit working for the US Department of State to start a business without much money.
Every time I import a container of wine, I am taking a risk if I will find buyers for it. Every time I send wine to a distributor without getting paid upfront, I count of the good business and moral values of that distributor.
When offered, last year, to take an investor into my company, I declined it as I did not feel comfortable risking someone else’s money. I rather invest excess money in small real-estate properties (something tangible) rather than risky stock investments.
Pricing:
- 21.99 most of my wines are right around 20.00 retail even though they drink more like 40 to 100.00 for some wines.
Contact Info:
- Email: indirabayer@winesofillyria.com
- Website: www.winesofillyria.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winesofillyria/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WinesofIllyriaUSA/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/illyriawinesof
Image Credits
https://csmarchand.com/
