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Articles

July 2010

Wineland Magazine - General

London International Wine Fair (LIWF) 2010 - Good business as usual

SOUTH Africa was well represented, with impressive stands by Wosa and the major wine companies. While numerous SA brands were scattered over the vast exhibition area with their UK importers, the Wosa stand accommodated 31 winer-ies/brands. Stellenbosch was the only region to have a stand, while the Chenin Blanc Association had the only cultivar specific exhibit from the Cape.    

The final visitor attendance figure stood at 13,693 with 3,170 (23%) from other countries – respectively down by 1% and up by 1% compared to last year.

left: A job well done ... Su Birch, Wosa CEO and head of their London office, Jo Wehring.

This year, the show saw a new floor plan take advantage of the extra space created by ExCel’s completed building works. An extension to the main hall allowed Distil, the dedicated spirits event, to move into the main hall alongside the Wine Fair. The compactness of the show (all in one hall) allowed for easier navigation and access.

Most of the feedback has been positive from both exhibitors and the wine trade. The latter has been through a difficult 18 months in the UK and despite all the travel problems, it was clear that the show still attracted a large number of European buyers.

Throughout the three days, exhibitors reported an impressive attendance from key individuals from the UK and abroad and the level of business activities was very high indeed.

Su Birch, CEO of Wosa, said the Fair was actually quieter than before the recession, although the South African stand attracted a steady stream of visitors. “We also had plenty of compliments on the stand design. A major talking point with everyone is how to make a profit in the UK market.  Producers from all over the world are struggling with the same dilemma: the UK is a huge market but the supermarket business is not profitable.”

Comments from the SA exhibitors were generally positive:

• The UK was and still is the hub of wine retail and visibility at the LIWF is very important. A large number of buyers from Scandinavia and Central Europe attend, making this a cost effective one-stop-shop, said Johann Krige of Kanonkop.
• The show still attracts all the major buyers from the UK and the most important buying groups from Europe. From a Distell perspective the show was very successful and provided us the opportunity to interact will all our existing and prospective customers  – Gary Greenfield, head of Distell’s office in Europe
• For the first time we focused on our sparkling wine portfolio and received unbelievably good feedback from buyers and wine writers – Carina Gous, head of wine marketing, Distell
• In London we all swim in the sea of wine. Success will depend on your focus and it has taken us five years of intensive marketing to get a breakthrough in the market – Tertius Boshoff of Stellenrust.
• I thought London was okay. We had good meetings, but most seemed to be follow-on conversations/deals from Prowein. I think London needs to reinvent itself to be of major significance again. Holding it every two years would help. Possibly changing the time of year to post September might also give it a new lease on life. – Geoff Harvey, export director for Vini-mark.
• We had a some good meetings with customers from continental European countries. Most of the benefit is gained from smaller countries which do not warrant regular visits to the markets. – KWV’s sales executive for Europe, Bryan Anderson.
• Our stand was as busy as ever and no remarkable slow-down was noticed. Most of the interest for new business development, however, was at the entry level price points reflecting the state of the market. –  Piet Momberg, KWV’s sales executive for the UK and USA.

All for vinous sustenance

The Wines of South Africa seminar on Sustainability was well attended. Robin Farrington, UK water policy advisor for WWF spoke about the global freshwater crisis and how urgent it is to reduce the human footprint on a resource in crisis.

Inge Kotzé, Biodiversity & Wine project co-ordinator (WWF-SA) gave an impressive presentation highlighting that our natural environment not only surrounds our vineyards, it underpins our total production. When managed appropriately, these natural systems provide and maintain free services in the form of healthy, living soils and sufficient quantity and quality of water to sustain our livelihoods and production, both now and into the future.

left: Gary Geenfield, head of Distell In Europe, Callie van Niekerk, the company’s head of winemaking and Carina Gous, who’s in charge of wine marketing, the latter two from Stellenbosch.

Su Birch outlined the details of the new Integrity and Sustainability Seal and said the launch of the new seal was an important step in promoting “leading the world in production integrity” cornerstone of the SA wine industry DNA. The message is a powerful one, and while the biggest interest has been in Scandinavia, the rest of the world will pick up on it.

“All the other countries are introducing seals in the next few years, so we need to get our message out this year. It will be easier once we have seals in the market place. Wosa is encouraging producers to get their importers, agents, and sales teams to use the two minute video on the new seal to spread the word.”  The video is available from Wosa’s offices.

Master class momentum

It was interesting to note the increase in presentations from wine countries and regions in “master classes” at their respective pavilions. These talks and tastings were often presented by Masters of Wine, supported in some cases by local experts and often linked to food from a region. They were very popular and fully booked.

The wine and food from Italy’s Emilia Romagna region was a great presentation, with the wines from the region matched to Parma ham and Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar from Modena. Even the Rhône Valley had a small area seating 10 people where four master classes a day were presented. This has great added value and South Africa should consider implementing similar workshops/master classes at the major wine shows overseas.

SA hauling in awards

Both Decanter and the International Wine Challenge (IWC) announced their results at the LIWF.
South Africa received nine Regional Trophies and 15 Gold awards at the Decanter Wine awards, with a huge success for our Shirazes – no less than 8 Shiraz wines got Gold awards.
At the IWC, South Africa  received 11 Gold awards with no less than five noble late harvests among the golds. Trophy winners are announced at a later stage.

Wosa awarded

Wosa won the trophy for Best Consumer Campaign at the Drinks Business 2010 Awards, held during the LIWF. This was for promoting  its wines as sustainably produced, in particular through The Great South African Wine Trail campaign, a PR initiative that ran during the summer of 2009. The campaign centered on an eye-catching, carbon-neutral, green bus, which visited eight major UK cities, sampling wines and bringing the Cape winelands to life for British consumers, with a display of vines and flora, recreating the Cape floral kingdom.