South Africa is underdeveloped as a wine category in export markets, thus offering huge potential, says Troy Christensen, president of Constellation Europe. One of the speakers at Nedbank’s Cape Wine 2008, where much of the discussion centred around the current political scenario in South Africa, Christensen believes the peaceful change in the leadership and the country’s political and economic institutions bodes well and should be considered an encouraging sign. The Constellation Group, the world’s largest producer of wines, acquired Kumala, South Africa’s largest export brand, in 2006 but Christensen points to research showing most UK consumers associate the brand with Australia rather than South Africa. Constellation is now intent on reclaiming lost market share – which has seen Kumala sales drop from three million cases to one million cases a year – by investing £5m (R75m) in a campaign to market the brand and build awareness of South Africa’s attributes as a wine-producing country.
