Port house hits out on "ludicrous" UK prices

[Mario Ferreira]

Harpers Magazine, http://www.harpers.co.uk
Issue 6310, November 23, 2007. £3.95

Port house hits out on "ludicrous" UK prices

Vranken-Pommery relaunches brand, attacks ranging policy and deep discounting

Port houses have criticised the UK retail trade's "Christmas discount culture", saying that the strategies de-valued the Port category.

António Saraiva, winemaker at Rozès, said: "We are killing each other by price promotions. It might sell volume for the brand on
promotion, but it's at the expense of the region."

He believed price promoting was likely to end, due to consolidation between Port houses.

Sara Hicks, Vranken-Pommery UK manager, said the multiples were neglecting the Port category. "I'm shocked at the Port shelves,"
she said. "They are not displayed by brand or age – there's just no reasoning behind it.

"As a consumer, where do you start? The only guide you have is price. No wonder the consumer doesn't take it seriously when it's mixed in with brandy and tonic wine, " she said.

Hicks described the practice of deep discounting on Port as "ludicrous". She continued: "It devalues the entire category. It
must be stopped if we are ever going to sell more than one bottle at Christmas."

The comments came as the Vranken Group is planning to push its "virtually unknown" Port brand Rozès in the UK for the first time,
admitting that very few UK consumers have heard of it.

Vranken has previously concentrated on marketing its Champagne brands, but has now started working with the Port Wine
Institute (IVDP) in the UK for the first time. It will target its campaign at the on-trade and independents over the next 12 months. Hicks said: "We've presented it to retailers but we haven't got the financial clout that supermarkets require so we'll be targeting the on-trade.

"You'll see the name around a lot more, and we'll be making sure we get our wines in the main tastings alongside the top half dozen
houses, " she said.

Saraiva added: "Until now I couldn't travel or support the brand in the UK. We've been buying land, building facilities but now I have a
good team I'm here to see what Rozès can do in this market."

[Andy Velebil]

I've enjoyed the few Rozes that I've had, but they need to work on their own promotion of their product first. They were the only ones who left at the start of the public tasting in L.A. a couple weeks ago. I was bummed as i really wanted to try them, only to find them packed up and gone early on, and before I got to them. Not the way to go about trying to raise awareness of your product :?

[simon Lisle]

Rozes is not established at all in the uk market the only time I've seen it on the shelves is in France

[Julian D. A. Wiseman]

He believed price promoting was likely to end, due to consolidation between Port houses.

How to attract the attention of the UK Competition Commission. Not a wise comment, even if true.

[Derek T.]

Like any other product this is simply a case of supply and demand. The majority of port wines that are heavily discounted in the UK at this time of year are below average "premium" ruby's and filtered LBV's that cannot under any circumstances be considered to be at the top of the Port gene pool. The large producers are churning out huge volumes of this stuff and shipping it to the UK in the full knowledge that it will spend 5 minutes on the shelf at full price (with no one dreaming of buying it) and then 2 to 3 weeks at 50% Off with every bottle being sold by the end of the offer.

Only ocassionaly does one find a gem in these offers. On these ocassions it is invariably as a result of a supermarket chain not knowing the true value of its stock. An example of this is when Asda (Wallmart) offloaded huge stoks of Warre's 1995 Unfiltered LBV earlier this year at £5 ($10) per bottle.

As I write this I am drinking a Dow's LBV 2001 - discounted from £10.99 to £5.49 per bottle. At a stretch it is worth £5.49. If the port trade wants to retain the value of its product it should produce better wine for the mass market rather than this rubbish that people will only buy when heavily discounted

Derek

[Roy Hersh]

As Derek mentioned, it all starts with QUALITY and Rozes has always gone low end, high volume and appealed to markets like France where they cook with it or use it as an aperitif.

That is not going to work heading into a Port savvy market like the UK. Maybe with LBVs where the commoner will grab 5 GBP bottles regardless of the quality, because they are not Port lovers and more often than not, they're just going to buy it for its price and couldn't tell the difference between a Rozes and a Taylor if it smacked them upside the head.

If all of the UK or US marketplace was like us Port lovers, none of the plonk would make it to the shelves and if it did, it would reside there for ages.

At the end of the day, it takes more than just pouring resources into marketing, in order to sell Port. Quality speaks volumes and sells volumes too.