Ray Smuts
FOURTEEN MONTHS down the line and Kim Green, chief executive officer of the South African Wine and Spirit Exporters' Association, is heading back to her old stamping ground, Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery, which is
to merge with Distillers Corporation into a newly-formed company on July 1.
I kind of new when I left SFW that I was on loan (to SAWSEA), she told FTW this week.
Previously head of marketing for SFW, she was unclear at the time of writing what her new designation would be. The structure of the new company will most likely be divided into categories and I anticipate being involved on the wine side, both locally and internationally.
Green, reviewing SAWSEA's activities since inception, told me she believed considerable progress had been made in spite of the relatively low marketing budget of around R12 million a year. (Australia spends ten times more on its wine export promotion).
The statutory five cents a litre on bulk and bottled wine is now in place and we have augmented
our funding substantially through the South African Wine Industry Trust.
A new development at SAWSEA is the appointment, effective May 15, of Sophie Waggett as its full-time representative in the United Kingdom. She will be based in London.
SAWSEA has also appointed a Dutch public relations agency to market South African wines in the Benelux countries.
Green's successor, already in place, is Sue Birch, former strategic marketing manager for Capespan.
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