During lockdown in June 2020, TOPS at SPAR Wine Show launched the single biggest wine consumer survey ever on behalf of the South African wine industry, the Great BIG Wine Survey. The North West University’s TREES (Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society) research unit assisted TOPS at SPAR Wine Show in collating the results from the 21 000 completed surveys into data which will be made available at no cost to wine producers in March 2021. But the investment into translating these valuable findings into deeply meaningful information which will have a positive impact on the wine industry, has not stopped there.

“We understood that the kind of data we had managed to generate could have a far bigger impact that we initially realised. The first report is obviously extremely broad, covers a lot of ground, and it certainly will give some nice insights, but we knew that with any research project you need to go a lot deeper into interpreting that data for maximum impact. Armed with that knowledge, we reached out to one of South Africa’s largest independent consumer insights agency, KLA, to help us take the data we had and amp it up on a number of levels enabling us to provide far more in-depth insights, findings and recommendations that will obviously make a far greater impact on the wine industry for years to come,” says Andrew Douglas, owner of the TOPS at SPAR Wine Show.

As a full-service market research agency known for taking on clients’ challenges and working alongside them to find solutions, KLA’s Research Director, Caitlin Bauristhene shed some light on their reasons for jumping at the opportunity to be a part of this ground-breaking project: “We are so excited to be partnering with TOPS at SPAR Wine Show on this next chapter in the Great BIG Wine Survey journey. The resulting report will serve the industry with much needed consumer insights which will enable improved ability to deliver against customer expectations. This in turn will support continued elevation of SA wine into the future. KLA is honoured to be a part of contributing our decades of consumer insight and category experience to this initiative.”

To further enhance the findings of the Great BIG Wine Survey and ensure that the element of customer centricity was central to the project, Andrew Douglas opened the lines of communication to Peter McAtamney, founding Principal of Wine Business Solutions (WBS) which is one of the only businesses globally whose sole focus is providing strategic advisory and management consultancy services to the wine industry.

McAtamney quickly realised just how unique an opportunity it was to be a part of research of this kind and had this to say of becoming the third member in this revolutionary research partnership with TOPS at SPAR Wine Show: “Having access to a dataset of this size and with such broad consumer examination is not something I have ever seen before in 30 years of analysing the global wine business. The power and possibility which will result from this is breath-taking. It means that South African producers, resellers and representative organisations can now leverage a level of consumer insight that will be world-leading.”

Andrew Douglas is understandably proud and excited to embark on the next steps in this journey: “This partnership between ourselves, KLA and WBS marks a huge development and opportunity for the wine industry to get the consumer information and data that we’ve been missing for a long time. It will make great inroads in empowering all the stakeholders of the wine industry from producers to bottle plants and packaging manufacturers, in making informed decisions beyond Covid-19, for many years to come.”

TOPS at SPAR Wine Show looks forward to making what was initially thought to be a ‘Lockdown Project’, into an annual event. A move which not only shows a genuine willingness to keep the conversation around wine going, but a desire to provide important consumer insights to industry by pioneering a research route which will allow wine producers to make sense of what their consumers think and want.

Visit the TOPS at SPAR Wine Show website to keep up to date with all the latest information.