Italian Wineries Report 8.8% Higher Revenue After Generational Handover

A new industry study in Italy says family-owned wineries that have completed a generational handover report stronger revenue and higher investment than those still led by the previous generation, adding new data to a succession issue that affects much of the country’s wine business.

The findings come from “Visione Vino 2026 – Radici profonde, sguardo lontano,” a strategic report presented Friday at the Teatro Valentino Garavani in Voghera during the closing forum of the first Visione Vino community organized by TEHA Group. According to the report, family wine companies that have already completed a generational transition show revenue that is 8.8% higher and investment levels that are more than 18% higher than companies that have not yet done so.

The study places those numbers inside a sector that remains heavily family-based and highly fragmented. It says 65% of the sector’s assets are in family hands, a share that rises to 81.5% when cooperatives are included. By 2025, 30.4% of family companies in the wine sector had already gone through and completed a succession process, while in 39.2% of cases the transition was still under way.

TEHA Group’s Benedetta Brioschi, partner and head of food and retail, said the generational shift can become a chance to strengthen wine companies, but only if it is paired with a broader increase in scale across the supply chain. In translated remarks presented with the report, she said a system made up almost entirely of small businesses risks having fewer resources to invest, innovate and maintain a steady presence in international markets.

That point is central to the report’s picture of Italian wine. It says 94.9% of Italian wine companies are small businesses, and together they generate 48.8% of the sector’s revenue. Medium-sized companies account for 4.8% of the total number of firms but produce 43.9% of turnover. Large companies make up just 0.3% of the total.

The report argues that succession planning and company size are linked issues. In practical terms, that means the next phase for many producers may involve not only handing control to younger family members but also strengthening management, financial and commercial skills, and building networks or alliances that can support larger investment plans. For the broader beverage industry, the data may matter because they offer a clearer basis for planning family succession and professional management in a market that remains dominated by small producers and depends heavily on exports.

The study also highlights a demographic difference between wine and the rest of Italian agriculture. It puts the average age of wine entrepreneurs at 45, compared with 60 across Italian farming more broadly. That 15-year gap suggests the wine sector has already attracted younger leadership to a greater extent than other agricultural activities, but it also shows how much of the sector’s future still depends on how ownership and management are transferred.

TEHA says it reconstructed, for the first time, the perimeter of what it calls the extended wine supply chain. That broader definition includes not only farming and winemaking, but also business support services, intermediation, distribution and restaurants. Within the narrower wine sector, the report says turnover reached €16.5 billion in 2025. When related activities are included, total business volume rises to €36.8 billion.

The study says direct value added from the sector reached €15.1 billion. Once indirect and induced effects across suppliers and distribution are added, the total contribution supported by the wine chain rises to €40.7 billion, equal to 2.1% of Italian gross domestic product. It also says wine accounts for more than 10% of the value added supported by Italy’s extended food and agriculture chain.

The scale of the industry remains large despite its fragmented structure. The report counts 241,000 agricultural businesses, more than 1,500 industrial companies and 681,000 hectares of vineyards spread across all Italian regions. Production reached 44 million hectoliters in 2025. Exports were worth €7.8 billion, equal to 47% of sector revenue, underlining how dependent Italian wine remains on foreign demand.

That export exposure comes at a time of rising pressure in the domestic market. The report says cellar inventories in Italy stood at 46.5 million hectoliters in June 2026, equal to about 6.2 billion bottles. That was 6.7% higher than in 2025. More than 80% of those stocks were certified DOP and IGP wines. Over the same period, the average price of Italian wine fell 10% from a year earlier. DOP wine prices dropped 7% to €1.57 per liter.

Brioschi said that mismatch between available volumes and the market’s ability to absorb demand risks pushing economic pressure along the supply chain and down to the agricultural base. In that context, the report presents internationalization as a necessary tool not only to raise sales volumes but also to increase the value generated by Italian wine abroad.

Those pressures help explain why the report treats generational transition as more than a family governance issue. In its reading, succession can become a growth lever if it leads to larger companies, stronger management and more disciplined investment. The alternative, implied throughout the study, is a sector with strong local roots but weaker capacity to defend margins when inventories are high and prices are falling.

The report also points to a mixed picture on technology. It says only three wineries out of 10 already use artificial intelligence or are testing it, while 49% do not use it at all. Among companies that have adopted AI tools, the main applications are marketing and communication at 50.7%, sales data analysis at 35.6%, wine tourism promotion at 16.4%, demand forecasting at 13.7%, export management at 11%, precision agriculture at 8.2% and climate monitoring at 4.1%.

On the consumer side, the study says 48.6% use digital tools linked to wine at least occasionally. The most common uses are searching for information and reviews at 53.1%, discovering new wines and producers at 43.2% and buying online at 28.7%. It also says 40% of people who use digital wine-related tools already rely on AI, or say they are very likely to use it, to plan, organize and book wine tourism experiences.

Taken together, the figures describe an industry with strong economic weight, broad territorial reach and significant export capacity, but also one still shaped by small family firms and exposed to international demand swings. In that setting, the report’s core finding is that when succession is completed rather than delayed, wineries tend to show stronger revenue and a higher willingness to invest.