As it’s often the case for so many of traditional Italian specialities when it comes to food exports, wine epitomises also in China the first position of table beverages. The Peninsula is, however, certainly not in pole position in this big Asian country, its year-long first rank as a worldwide wine producer notwithstanding. That trophy is lifted by France, which alone holds more than half the market with over 550 million dollars, followed by Australia, Chile, and Spain, while Italy doesn’t even exceed 100 million dollars in exports, and it has a more sluggish growth rate compared to the competitors.
Mainly Italian red wines, for which the Chinese show a marked preference, deserve much greater commercial space in relation to their quality and wide range. To achieve this, there is more need of significant commercial investments than those made by on-site Italian companies. The Venetian company Zonin certainly stands out among the few companies to move in this direction. Zonin China, which was founded in 2015, deals with the distribution of the group’s products in the Far East. “China continues to represent a big, expanding market,” says Ceo of Zonin, Massimo Tuzzi, in which the consumers of imported wine doubled in the last year. I have no doubt that Zonin China will enable us to successfully achieve new targets.
The real breakthrough in China will come about when drinking wine will become habitual not only for the affluent part of the society, who has had the opportunity to travel the world and see different products and styles. I am thinking of the second and third-level urban middle classes, so those lacking a strong foreign resident community, which in the main metropolitan areas are responsible for an important share of wine purchase.
THE TARGET IN THE FAR EAST – The Chinese subsidiary is the third trade unit of the Italian company abroad, after the American and British branches that have already achieved gratifying sales results, translating into double-digit growth rates in the first part of 2016. Although the Chinese market is complex and dominated by 80% of domestic wines, the Italian company will particularly focus on winning over new admirers for its excellence in the middle class of the population, the one that increasingly tends to consume wine regularly. The company headquarters is in Shanghai: We chose Shanghai, explains Vice President Francesco Zonin, as Zonin China’s headquarters, as it is the country’s economic centre, thanks to its special geographical and strategic position. On top of that, it allows us to have a solid logistical base in order to penetrate the markets of all Far Eastern countries, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. In the latter, the volumes of Italian wine imports grew by about 30% in the past three years and the national wine, along with the ‘Italian style’, are becoming increasingly popular and constitute a significant market share.
ONLINE COMMERCE – The aim is to reach a total number of 50 distributors and subdistributors that will be supported by Zonin Shanghai in sales and marketing. Zonin Shanghai will also give a closer look to the online segment, targeting key players with dedicated products since we truly believe in a further expansion of this channel of the market. The marketing investments will be directed mostly to btl actions to support sales and visibility in the different channels, but also to off line activities to combine with social media campaigns. In the next three years torres will be a strategical partner for Zonin 1821 in order to consolidate our visibility and secure distribution both in the premium on-trade in key cities and in some prestigious off premise accounts like Olé, BhG, sam’s Club, April Gourmet” Zonin explains we will continue to work with Torres China with exclusivity in PRC for the brands Castello D’Albola, Masseria Altemura and the following lines of Zonin: Spumanti, Classici, Gioielli, Trio and Movida. Kerry Wines, being part of the same group as Shangri-La, have the potential to become another key player in the market overall in the on-trade channel. Zonin started the relationship with them in 2016 launching the Montecampo brand in the Chinese market.
