The revival in wine sales to China has proven to be a boost to one of Australia’s largest family-owned wine groups.
As reported in The Australian, De Bortoli Wines has been able to forge higher sales and profitability off the back of Australia’s growth into the Chinese market, in particular from sales into up-market restaurants and hotels and the exceeding demand for newer fashionable styles such as rose and prosecco.
It has also increased its investment into social media in the region, such as China’s WeChat, while directing marketing spend away from rebates and promotions and into other advertising strategies, including superscreens at shopping centres, large billboards, digital campaigns, Spotify, bus shelters and catch-up TV to reach a new millenial target market.
De Bortoli’s records show revenue in fiscal 2019 rose to $150.755m, from $147.3m in 2018, with its net profit rising strongly to $20.1m, from $13.55m.
“The company’s on-premise status is held across much of mainland China and throughout Asia, with notable achievements including being named top red wine brand by the glass in Beijing by MiBD Markets in late 2018 and the No 1 Australian wine brand in Japan based on combined still and sparkling Australian wine,” the De Bortoli annual report said.
De Bortoli Wines managing director Darren De Bortoli said North America and Europe had also delivered good returns but China had been “the standout”.
