Tag: China

Champagne Brands Eye China

Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger and other champagne houses could spearhead a move into China, in an indication of changing tastes.

Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, was speaking to the Wall Street Journal following the publication of a new study.

99.5% of wine currently consumed in still wine. “The Chinese ignore the sparkling wines right now,” Beynat said.

He attributed this to a shortage of marketing by the champagne industry, and said leading brands would play an important future role in educating Chinese consumers about sparkling wines.

The overall growth in wine consumption in China is expected to slow to 39.6% over the next four years, compared with the 142% increase seen between 2007 and 2011.

Vinexpo expects 252m cases of wine to be consumed annually in China by 2016, up from 159m in 2011.

Beynat said the slowdown was a natural correction after the explosion in demand witnessed in China in recent years.

Nonetheless, he anticipated that the country would remain a growth story, as he pointed out China is expected to become the world’s sixth largest wine producer in 2016, ahead of Chile and Australia. “The more you produce, the more you drink,” he noted.

French wines still rule the Chinese market, accounting for around 48% of imports in terms of volume.

China’s per capita consumption is predicted to increase from 1.4 litres of wine per person to 2.1 litres over the next three years. This remains far behind France, the top nation on this metric, at 53.2 litres per person.

Source: AFP/Wall Street Journal

Champagne 2011 exports reached their second highest volume in 5 years

Champagne exports 2011 reached their second highest volume in five years – with sales close to the peak of 2007. Exports in 2011 were up by 5.1%, rising to a total of 141.2m bottles, the second largest volume ever achieved behind 2007 and only 9.5m bottles less than this peak, according to the latest statistics just released by Champagne’s governing body CIVC.

However because of a slight downturn in domestic sales in France, where the market weakened towards the end of the year, total sales figures rose by just over 1%, to 322.97m bottles.

The best performers in emerging markets were Russia (up 24.5%), China (up 19.4%), and Hong Kong (up 15.1%) – the rate of growth slowed in the second half of 2011; these three markets between them account for 4.1m bottles.

Top performer in emerging markets was India at 58.7% – total shipments to this market reached 290,286 bottles.

Shipments to Belgium and Germany both rose by 8.5% – the best results achieved within Europe.

Shipments to the USA recovered well, rising by 14.4% to 19.4m bottles – still short of the historic peak of 23.2m bottles in 2006.

Shipments to Australia rose to 4.86m bottles.

Michel Letter, head of G.H. Mumm and Perrier-Jouët, said, ‘2011 was the third best year ever after 1999 and 2007 with total shipments reaching 323m bottles, not bad considering the worldwide economic situation.’

Liz Palmer
@champagnehouses

VIAGRA IS CHAMPAGNE’S MAJOR THREAT

Champagne’s stiffest competition comes not from Prosecco, Cava or English sparkling wine – but from Viagra, according to Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit last week, the Taittinger chief executive also predicted that Champagne exports to China will outstrip the US within 15 years.

And he expects Champagne sales to rebound this year, aided by the weaker Euro, restocking in the supply chain and surging demand in emerging markets.

‘I am worried about pensions. I am worried about the debt of our countries. We will have less money,’ Taittinger said.

‘But we will always have the time to make love and drink Champagne, and we will do it even more.’
Like most of the major Champagne houses, Taittinger’s sales have been badly affected by the economic downturn, with volumes down 10% during 2009.

But Taittinger said he expected sales to rise 10-20% this year, aided by 40% year-on-year growth in China. Champagne’s only competitor? ‘Viagra’.

‘China is the new United States,’ he said. ‘There is no doubt that it will be a strong market in 15 years. It will be much better than the US.’

And he said that ‘nothing is better’ than a glass of Champagne to help forget the stress and pressures of the modern world.

‘We are an affordable luxury. For one hour we can behave like the Queen of England.’

Richard Woodard