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Made-in-China wine to hit major airports
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-21 08:40
Bottles of made-in-China wine will, for the first time in history, be
available in duty-free stores at the world's major airports.
Cognac giant Camus, also the world's leading tax-free shop operator,
entered into a 10-year agreement with Chinese winemaker Dragon Seal over
the weekend, vowing to sell the wine in 50 of its 4,000 duty-free outlets
globally within six months.
The partnership is part of Camus' "Spirit of China" project. The French
company has already struck deals with top Chinese liquor companies
Moutai, Gu Yue Long Shan and Chunghwa Cognac, a liquor jointly developed
by Camus and a leading Chinese cigarette company. These liquors are
already on Camus' store shelves.
In the agreement with Dragon Seal, Camus will introduce the company's
signature Osmanthus King wine to its shops.
Osmanthus wine is only produced in China.
Since last September, Camus President Cyril Camus started the plan to
sell Chinese spirits in his tax-free shops at over 20 international
airports, such as Rome, Paris, Bangkok, Singapore, Amsterdam and Helsinki.
The sales revenues of the Chinese products have reached US$250,000, which
Camus believed is "a very good beginning."
"Such a figure should grow by 20 times in three years' time," he
predicted.
As part of the project, Camus plans to train his salespeople about
Chinese culture and basic mandarin conversation.
Camus, a fifth generation heir, can speak fluent Chinese and has been
directly involved in marketing initiatives in China. He and his Chinese
wife, Isabelle, were married in 1999.
He said he sought out Dragon Seal because the 95-year-old Chinese company
only uses grapes from China.
"The company follows the French concept of one terroir, which is
important to guarantee the consistent quality of wine," he said.
Terroir is a certain region belonging to a specific vineyard and sharing
the same type of soil, weather conditions and winemaking savoir-faire.
"I can see that Dragon Seal spends huge effort on planting grapes and
brewing wine," he said.
The wine history is not very established in China, but Dragon Seal's
development represents the most prosperous period of the sector, Camus
said.
"Joining Camus' duty free shop system will help us enhance the brand
image. This 10-year partnership will definitely bring pleasant result to
our exports," said Liu Chunmei, general manager of Dragon Seal,
Dragon Seal is China's largest wine exporter.
Its export volume reached 1,000 tons last year, accounting for 10 per
cent of its total output.
By 2010, the firm aims to export 18 per cent of its output annually.
"We mainly export to European countries, such as France, Germany and
Belgium, which are traditional wine-making countries," she said.
She added that the company pledges to further expand its export
destinations this year, mainly to Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Currently Dragon Seal's exports account for 10 per cent of the firm's
output, and it expects the percentage to hit 18 per cent by 2010, Liu
said.
The two parties will develop a packaging and advertisements for the wine
that will be sold in airports, in hopes of appealing to international
travellers.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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