Today we’d like to introduce you to Ladd Biro.
Ladd, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It was Matt Childs’ idea initially. He wondered if a tour of the various wineries in Grapevine could be done, and if it could become a viable business. He bounced the idea off me over lunch in Grapevine one day, and I thought it was brilliant. We set up meetings with the wineries, the area hotels and the Convention & Visitors Bureau, and the feedback was nearly universal: Why didn’t we think of that?
We quickly enlisted our third partner, Robbyn Wysocki, who’s a talented lawyer, to get us properly organized and operational. This was in the spring of 2010, and by July, we had purchased our first bus, Sheila Clevenger had built our web site, Matt’s and my wives (Nancy and Shelly, respectively) agreed to handle reservations, we hired our first tour guides and we held our inaugural tour on July 27, 2010.
One of our first guests was Kelli Sattler, who loved the experience so much, she reached out to see if we could use a sales person. Why yes, yes, we could!
From the very beginning, we surveyed virtually every guest to get their feedback at the end of every tour. Their input was almost always positive, but we took their constructive criticisms to heart and tweaked the tours along the way.
We made the decision to hire experienced, older tour guides — many of whom were retired or near retirement — so we could feel confident that no matter what happened, a mature, professional individual could handle the situation. That has proven to be a successful formula, which we continue to follow today.
Naturally, the wineries were thrilled that we were raising the visibility of their venues to people across DFW and beyond. They welcomed the incremental business immediately. The hotels, on the other hand, were somewhat reluctant to entrust their guests to us until we proved ourselves. The CVB, while supportive, watched us very closely to make certain we represented the city and its wineries well.
Fortunately, we passed the audition, and after a few months, everyone was fully on-board and our business began growing. Almost seven years later, we have multiple, wrapped buses, five extraordinary tour guides and a thriving business. Kelli is not only still our salesperson, but she’s become a well-respected ambassador for the City of Grapevine, too.
The partners each have well-defined roles and have been respectful and appreciative of each other’s areas of expertise.
The Grapevine Wine Tours are now one of the most popular entertainment destinations in North Texas — for visitors and locals alike.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a remarkably smooth road, for the most part. Of course, we’ve had hiccups along the way, such as the occasional bus breakdown. And our attempt to establish the Dallas Wine Tours was not as successful. (We still run the occasional tour in Dallas, but our focus is almost exclusively on Grapevine.)
In fact, our road has gotten even smoother over the years, as Grapevine has attracted several more outstanding new wineries to the city since we began. We’ve been blessed to retain all but one of our original tour guides — one retired! — and we’ve added wonderful new guides to lead our excursions.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Grapevine Wine Tours – what should we know?
We offer both lunch and dinner tours of the wineries and wine-tasting rooms in Grapevine on a daily basis, year-round. Each tour is roughly four hours long and includes stops at two wine venues (with multiple wine tastings) plus a third stop at either Farina’s Winery or Winewood for a delicious, multi-course meal.
Our prices are all-inclusive. The only additional, optional expense is a tip for your tour guide.
We rotate our tours among the various award-winning wineries in Grapevine, so you can go on multiple days and have a different experience each time. We try to accommodate all special requests, and we are happy to create custom itineraries for larger groups.
Each of our buses can seat up to 25 guests comfortably. We have had tour groups of 100, 150 and even 200 guests!
Our tours are extremely popular for corporate meetings and team-building, spouse excursions for conventions, bachelorette parties, anniversaries, birthday parties, neighborhood outings, Girls Nights Out or just a fun alternative to the typical “dinner and a movie” date.
Over the years, we’ve had several marriage proposals and baby announcements, and hundreds of people have become repeat, even frequent, guests.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
From the very beginning, we have been laser-focused on providing a safe, fun and enjoyable experience for our guests. We have never cut corners, often sacrificing our margins to ensure the quality of our tours.
That, and a strong team from top to bottom, have been the keys to our success.
Pricing:
- Lunch Tours: $99.50 + tax per person
- Dinner Tours: $109.50 + tax per person
Contact Info:
- Website: www.grapevinewinetours.com
- Phone: 817.259.WINE (9463)
- Email: info@grapevinewinetours.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GWTours/
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