Discover How Viña Concha y Toro Improved Standardization and Collaboration in Their Contracts.

Concha y Toro: World Leader in Wine Production and Marketing

Viña Concha y Toro is a renowned company dedicated to producing and marketing wine worldwide. Its influence extends beyond the borders of Chile, as it has a subsidiary in the United States called Conserva and in Argentina called Trivento. Additionally, it has representation and marketing offices in more than fifteen countries, including China, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and France.

Concha y Toro is characterized by its vertical integration, which means it is involved in every stage of the wine production process, from the cultivation of the "Vitis vinifera"—the scientific name for grapevines—to the sale of each bottle on supermarket shelves. This broad presence and involvement in the wine value chain create unique challenges and complexities, both legally and operationally.

The Legal Department Inside Viña Concha y Toro

The legal department of Viña Concha y Toro plays a fundamental role that goes beyond the traditional view of merely drafting commercial agreements and knowing legal regulations. They are responsible for ensuring the company's compliance with legal and ethical obligations, acting as advisors and facilitators, and providing in-depth support to all commercial areas of the company to comply with the corporate strategy established by the board.

Instead, their role is focused on providing in-depth support to all commercial areas of the company to comply with the corporate strategy established by the board, as expressed by Sofía Benoit: "Although we usually do not interact directly with external suppliers, our focus is on facilitating for the internal areas of the company. We hold regular meetings with our internal clients -such as the information technology and agriculture departments- to understand where they are headed, what they want to achieve, and their strategies and goals."

In addition to ensuring compliance with legal and ethical obligations, the legal team acts as the business's advisors and facilitators.

Legal Management's Business Challenges

Throughout its history, Concha y Toro has experienced exponential growth over the past 30 years. This growth has posed additional challenges, increasing the complexity of the business. To address these demands, the company has implemented various types of contracts through its contract management tool.

Moreover, a culture of awareness about the importance of contracts and the associated policies has been promoted, encouraging early and proactive participation of the legal area in negotiations and critical decisions.

Strategic Projects of Viña Concha y Toro's Legal Management

The strategic projects of Viña Concha y Toro's legal management focus on implementing systems and tools that allow visibility and control over compliance indicators and the level of contract management across all internal areas of the company. These projects aim to ensure the strength and compliance of the internal areas in legal terms and establish a legal center of excellence that oversees and ensures consistency in contract management across all organization's subsidiaries, avoiding problems arising from inadequate contracts.

Regarding indicators, the legal area of Viña Concha y Toro has built different metrics for each of the legal functions, such as the number of days it takes to respond to inquiries and requests and the level of compliance in legal and fiscal aspects.

These indicators are presented periodically to the company's board, using visual tools like traffic lights to align the legal strategy with the company's corporate strategy.

Benefits of the Legal Management and Impact on the Business

Viña Concha y Toro has experienced significant benefits by implementing contract management software in its legal area. Now, they have complete visibility of all the company's contracts, allowing them to know the strengths and associated alerts. It has also given them certainty regarding the ownership of the contracts and their obligations.