SA wine exporters can learn from Oz success

Brand promotion is paramount Ray Smuts MORE needs to be done to exploit the full export potential of wine to the United Kingdom, and South Africa could do well to take a leaf from the marketing successes of Australia. This is the view of Mike Paul, m.d. of British company Western Wines which owns Kumala, South Africa’s largest export brand and the sixth biggest retailed in the UK. Addressing a marketing seminar for South African wine producers in Cape Town last week, Paul made the point that the UK trade was highly receptive to new wines and that this country was ideally placed to maximise its advantages. These include close trading, tourist and cultural ties, physical proximity and discernibly South African brand, all of which add up to significant opportunities provided a coherent industry-led strategy is developed to address the UK market. A former head of the European division of Australian wine giant Southcorp, Paul urged the industry to learn from the success of the Australian wine industry now ranked second largest supplier to the UK after France. The first step in building the value of South Africa’s wine exports to the UK is to develop and communicate a strategy based on sound market research while projecting a “decisive sense of unity” among producers. Brand promotion is paramount to future success and producers must treat wines as a business and start taking control of the destiny of their products rather than abdicate the responsibility of marketing, sales and distribution. “South African producers should adopt a similar top-down approach to their Australian counterparts where wines at the top rung of a brand impact positively on the image and reputation of the wines sold at the lower, more mainstream and populist rungs.” Whereas the average UK price for South African wines in the year up to June 2002 was £3,48 Australia achieved an average of £4,25. Paul calls on local producers to shift their focus from the mainstream to the higher end of the market in order to elevate the country’s image as a wine producer. According to Wines of South Africa, Cape wine exports to the UK passed the 75 million litre mark last year reflecting a growth in volume of 30% over the previous year. Most encouraging is that South Africa now has four brands in the top 20 list of best retail sellers in the UK. Aside from Kumala they are Namaqua (15th), Arniston Bay (18th) and Goiya (20th).