Business Wars

It's 1999 and Levi's is a company in trouble. It's drowning in debt, out of fashion, and hobbled by sub-par distribution.

But while Levi's searches for a way to make a comeback, a new, fast-growing enemy is out to convince people to abandon jeans altogether.

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It's the '80s and Levi's is far out in front in the battle for denim dominance. 

But Lee owner V.F. Corporation isn't giving up. It's about to make a major move that will pile the pressure on Levi's and threaten its status as market leader.

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It's the late '60s and Levi's is seeking to stay on trend by tuning into the flower-power movement taking over San Francisco. 

But keeping up with the ever-shifting tides of fashion is harder than it looks and soon Europe will be taking jeans onto an unfamiliar battleground: the catwalk.

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It's the 1950s and young Americans are idolizing the new wave of Hollywood rebels and horrifying their parents by wearing jeans. 

But as these post-war renegades take denim duds out of the workplace, the jean giants find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Do they hold fast to their traditional base of cowboys and factory workers, or embrace the teenagers who are adopting denim? 

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It's the mid-1800s and a young wholesaler called Levi Strauss is looking to cash in on the California Gold Rush.

But when a wandering tailor approaches Strauss with a revolutionary idea, his business takes an unexpected turn into the world of workwear — and it will change his family’s destiny.

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It's the 1930s and Californian jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. is struggling. The Great Depression is destroying jobs and killing demand for its denim workwear.

So when a craze for the Old West boosts demand for jeans, Levi's and its rival Lee seize the moment. But then an unfamiliar stranger swaggers into town looking to make their battle a three-way shootout.

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COVID-19 has flipped the economy on its head. But the pandemic’s new normal has also created new opportunities. Against all odds, some businesses are actually thriving -- and we’re not just talking about streaming companies. Today we bring you a roundup of some of our favorite recent stories from our weekday news podcast, Business Wars Daily. 

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When Ernest and Joseph Gallo died in 2007, decades after their brother Julio, it put an end to a family saga that had stretched for the better part of a century. But the company the brothers founded is still going strong. On the show this week is Cyril Penn, Editor In Chief of Wine Business Monthly, a trade magazine for the wine industry. We’ll talk about the current state of the Gallo Family wine brand and how it fits in the wider California wine industry. Plus, we’ll bring in Barbara Bogaev, who wrote this series, for a quick chat about how she researched the story. 

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It’s the 1980’s and Gallo rockets to the top of the new lucrative wine cooler market with a brilliant ad campaign for its Bartles and Jaymes brand. But long held resentments, buried secrets and lurking distrust bubble up to the surface when the “unknown Gallo brother,” Joe, Jr., launches a cheese business under the label of Joseph Gallo. Now Ernest, Julio and Joe Jr. fight a final bitter trademark battle in court over the family fortune and legacy. 

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Heading into the turbulent 1960s, Ernest Gallo attempts to conquer the Midwestern wine market by taking on a dangerous associate of Al Capone in Chicago. 

As the company grows, the two Gallos join forces in consolidating their control over the family empire and edging their younger brother, Joe, Jr, out of the family business. But just as Gallo reaches the pinnacle of the industry, it gets caught in the middle of a major labor rights battle. Cesar Chavez and his United Farmworkers are fighting with the Teamsters union over who will represent grape pickers. Chavez’s Gallo Boycott is poised to become the company’s biggest public relations challenge yet.

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