How Vinexpo is looking to re-invent itself for a new global wine industry
By Richard Siddle
It was all change at this week’s Vinexpo exhibition in Bordeaux. It was also arguably its most important show out of all the previous 18 editions that had gone before it, since it was first launched in 1981.
It might seem strange to be questioning an event that is about to enter its fourth decade, but there is no denying that Vinexpo - at least its Bordeaux show - is under great pressure to change and re-invent itself if it is to keep its position as one of the blue riband events in the wine calendar.
Well it’s certainly trying - if this week’s Bordeaux event is a sign of things to come. This was, after all, the first time the show has been held in May, and early May at that, rather than its traditional home in the middle of June. The 2017 heat wave that made the last show, at times, close to unbearable, was enough to convince the then Vinexpo chief executive, Guillaume Deglise, to move the entire event a month earlier. That was the first change in 2019.
The second was Deglise himself. Following his departure from Vinexpo last year he was back as an exhibitor in 2019 in his new role heading up Bichot in Burgundy. Showing support for a show that he himself had such a big positive influence over during the five years he was in charge. Particularly around the strategic alliances it has forged with businesses like China’s online giant, Alibaba, and the big uplift in the quality of the content, conferences, seminars and debates there are now at the show.
In his place was Rodolphe Lameyse, Vinexpo’s new chief executive, and was arguably the most important change that Vinexpo made in 2019. For the first time it has decided to go outside the wine industry for its ceo. Instead it has opted to go for an international trade show specialist. Which considering the job in hand is to steer a global wine show through turbulent times has to be the right decision.
The fact one of the first big decisions he has made is to agree a collaboration with Wine Paris to host a joint show in Paris in February 2020, rather than do a separate Vinexpo in the city in January show could well turn out to be one of his most important during his tenure.
Crucially Lameyse’s trade show experience has not been too far away from wine and spirits in that he has most recently been in charge of Food & Hotel Asia for the last six years. A job that was based in Singapore giving him on the ground experience of running trade shows across Asia and into China. All key factors in the turnaround story for Vinexpo.
Up for the challenge
He might be from outside wine, but he is very aware of what Vinexpo’s key challenges are. Particularly in Europe where ProWein has emerged over the last five to seven years as strategically the most important trade fair - arguably in the world.
As he told me last month: “Devising a new strategy is one thing, ensuring its delivery is the real challenge. This was probably what attracted me the most to the role – because it’s a very big challenge.
There was arguable not a lot that Vinexpo could have done to stop the rise of ProWein. It was simply in the right place at the right time. March is when a lot of the world of wine is ready and open for doing business. The European harvests for the year before have all bedded in and the New World is either in or just coming out of their vintage with a whole year’s volume of wine to sell. ProWein also has the infrastructure at Messe Dusseldorf to expand and grow across its 20
plus modern exhibition halls.
Vinexpo in the early summer, in the restricted confines of the ageing exhibition centre in Bordeaux, has always had a different feel and purpose. For years it had been able to play off its reputation as an exhibition that was more for show, fine wine and flag waving, in the world capital of wine in Bordeaux. Particularly at a time when ProWein was operating far more at the commercial, mainstream end of the market.
We now live in a very different international wine market. It has in the last 10 years become a true global industry now that Asia, China, the US and to some degree, Russia have all opened their doors for imported wine.
With it has come the enormous quality improvements in shipping wine in bulk and bottling it in market. Not only saving money, but crucially it has, in international trade show terms, switched the balance of power away from a trade show that was predominantly about French, Bordeaux and Old World fine wine, to the big commercial all rounder with already a proven track record as the show to do business at and shift large volumes of commercially priced wine.
Now Lameyse is not going to stop that momentum or change the way the world of wine now does business. But he can make sure Vinexpo is doing all it can do to remain relevant and important to all the producers and buyers that still see it as a vital show to attend. After all there were said to be close to 50,000 visitors at this week’s show with buyers and exhibitors coming from 40 plus countries.
It appears he is looking to do this in three key ways:
- firstly build on what Deglise was getting right. Make Vinexpo the centre of wine debate with a series of agenda setting conferences and symposiums. This week saw two days of the show dedicated to climate change and e-commerce featuring illustrious speakers from all over the world.
- Make Vinexpo even more of a global brand. The Wine Paris deal is definitely a step in the right direction and 2020 will see it host events in Paris, Hong Kong and New York.
- Thirdly the focus has to be on quality, excellence and offering a trade show experience that no-one else can match. Like its Explorer initiative, again introduced by Deglise, that takes 100 leading buyers from all over the world to key wine regions.
There was certainly a spring in the step of this week’s show. The fact it was so much cooler to work in, walk around and get to and from certainly helped.
Vinexpo has always had its own sense of confidence, that in its pre-Deglise days had more than bordered on arrogance. Which was responsible for losing a lot of support from both producers and buyers, particularly the major New World countries of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
It is only natural that it is going to take a while to get its own rejuvenated mojo back. But like the city of Bordeaux itself the signs from the 2019 show are good.