Jacob's Creek sets its sights on burgeoning Asian market
Australia’s biggest wine brand Jacob’s Creek has its sights set on the Asian market, where the brand has already become the top imported wine in India.
Asia, including China, India and other southeast Asian countries currently accounts fo 10% of Jacob’s Creek’s worldwide sales volume.
“They are tough markets, but it’s about looking into the future of wine,” Jacob’s Creek’s chief winemaker Ben Bryant told Drinks Business.
“China is big, growing fast and consumption is growing. Female buyers are key, that’s why we are focusing on these markets.”
Pinot Ricard which owns Jacob’s Creek has developed a strong distribution network in China, and Bryant said the company had “strong ambitions” in that market.
The entire Jacob;s Creek range is available in China, and the company wants to push more on premise drinking. “We want the wines to be consumed on the table,” confirmed Bryant.
One advantage that Jacob’s Creek has in the Chinese market is that the perception of Australia is a very favourable one, added Bryant. The goegrpahical proximity between the two countries helps too.
“But the challenge is to understand how to do business in China, and we are fortunate to have a good network of distributors, so the Australian export is growing and this is fantastic,” he added.
In China, red wine still dominates the market, while in India,still wines top all categories of consumption, with a relatively balanced ratio of red and white wine.