Packing wine, empowering people

South Napa plant provides place for disabled workforce

By MIKE TRELEVEN
Register Staff Writer

Paul White inspects wine packaging for an hourly wage, but he doesn’t consider it work. And his colleagues are not just employees of a Napa company — they are all part of one happy family, he said.

His coworker, Pei-lin Casey, said fishing is the only activity she likes more than working the packaging line at WineBev Services near the Napa County Airport, creating two-packs and four-packs of wine bottles for sale.

White and Casey are two of the 50 adults with disabilities who work at WineBev, a company owned and operated by United Cerebral Palsy of the North Bay. The business, designed to provide training and jobs for the developmentally disabled, has blossomed after opening little more than a year ago on Airpark Road with just two employees.

All employees are paid at least minimum wage and the pay is not based on the person’s productivity. A key benefit for disabled workers is the opportunity to connect with others, focus on a productive task and integrate with mainstream colleagues day in and day out.

“At the end of the day after work, I feel good. And I get a paycheck, too,” White said.

Ed Matovcik is in charge of philanthropic efforts at Foster’s Wine Estates, which owns Beringer Vineyards and other local wineries and which provided a $50,000 grant to WineBev.

Speaking of the WineBev staff, he said, “I have never met an employee base that is so motivated to work. They can’t wait to get in and start doing meaningful work. It just makes sense from a corporate social responsibility, as well as business sense,” for Foster’s to support the effort.

Creating opportunity

Mike Lisenko, WineBev’s vice president of business operations, is the one who breaks down jobs into tasks that the disabled workers can easily manage. He also evaluates individuals and figures out what tasks they are best suited for.

Employees are recruited from Napa and Solano counties. The business has a capacity to employ 56, which will lead to a waiting list of potential employees. “The response has exceeded all expectations,” said Ron Hamilton, chief of operations for WineBev Services.

Since opening its doors, WineBev Services has paid an estimated $100,000 in wages to people with disabilities. “We are empowering people to be more economically independent,” Hamilton said.

“And it has gone to many people who may have never been paid a fair wage before,” said Margaret Farman, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of the North Bay. “Some of them have not had jobs in several years. This rapid growth shows that people with disabilities want to work and the opportunities are not being developed and nurtured elsewhere.”

WineBev partners with North Bay Regional Center in Napa to identify adults who may be interested in working at the south Napa facility. North Bay Regional Center also provides some funding for staff support and transportation.

WineBev Services is also licensed as an adult day program. Employees can engage in recreational activities and arts and crafts projects in a separate part of the facility.

“We have a strong arts program here and have a couple of talented employees who have sold their art,” Hamilton said.

Growing quickly

In a 12,000-square-foot temperature-controlled warehouse, WineBev Services repacks wine into shrink-wrapped two packs, and four- and six-pack toters.

At the plant, a forklift beeps and scoots around pallets loaded with cases of wine waiting to be unpacked and repackaged for sale.

On a recent morning, workers were shrink-wrapping bottles of Beringer’s Meridian wines for shipment to Costco stores. The production line was purchased by WineBev after it received the $50,000 community grant from Foster’s.

Based on the potential increase in work and employees, Lisenko believes the company could use a larger warehouse — maybe in the 25,000- to 30,000-square-foot range.

Meanwhile, WineBev already has expanded from its south county plant. It has four employees and a supervisor working on the bottling line at Sutter Home Winery, doing repacking, labeling and other production tasks. “They are working there because of skills they learned here,” Hamilton said. “We hope to expand that, and we are talking with other wineries.”

Currently, WineBev has repackaging contracts with Beringer and Sutter Home.

White has been WineBev’s community outreach person, recruiting potential employees. “I’ve liked it here since my first day. It’s kicked back and I like the people I work with,” White said. White found out about WineBev through a North Bay program called Becoming Independent, which helps adults with disabilities.

Casey said if she weren’t working at WineBev, she would probably be at home and bored. “I’ll be working here for a long time,” she said.

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