The wine we have created for this brand is for drinking every day. You always have a bottle in the fridge on the go and have a glass before the activities of the evening.
What percentage of your business is export and where are your biggest markets?
The UK and Australia are our biggest markets but we are making inroads in the States and have an office in San Francisco. We began exporting to the United States in January 2012 and have three employees there selling to distributors across 21 states.
How do you tell your story to customers?
Our customers are retailers and wholesalers. I am going to the States in a couple of weeks to keep getting our story out there. Why choose to buy my wine versus the next person's wine, that's what you have to explain. We talk about not only being great value for money but we have the story which has a lot of customer appeal. O
ur wine is becoming more popular, we want to end up being a household name. It does come down to having my customers look at our proposition and history. We own our own vineyards, and we have been in the trade for years. I step in to educate the person on the floor who is selling to consumers. I travel regularly to help educate the sales people. I will be going to Texas and Chicago creating new ambassadors for the Marisco stable of wines. I have been doing this in England for many years and can attract 60 to 70 shop managers to any one tasting.
Do you bring customers to New Zealand?
We recently flew 10 wine buyers out from the States, took them to our beachhouse on Waiheke, and then on to Marlborough to the Marisco vineyards and winery.
We made them take their shoes off and walk in the river and walk up through the vineyard to the winery. Showing them why we love the area is what makes the experience special. When we bought the vineyard we wanted something with the x-factor. Marisco Vineyards is on the banks of the Waihopai, it has three terraces and is now a beautiful winery.
What did you learn from your Wither Hills experience?
Success comes from making wine and creating brands that people love. We have just purchased another single vineyard site, Leefield Station and want to roll out the same experience and story for a whole new property. Compared to a lot of other grape growing regions we are still very young.
Thanks to our experience with Wither Hills, we know our buyers very well in all our markets and they are used to our wine style.
The other big lesson from Wither Hills was the whole wine making process. It's all about good flow in the winery, and quality grape growing and wine making right through to bottling.
What other export markets do you have your eye on?
Our emerging markets are the US and China. Then Nordic countries like Sweden and Finland and India is another one.
How do you read the Fonterra situation?
I think Theo Spierings is very wise to base himself in China during the situation. I have been to China seven or eight times for business over the last two years. It's all about understanding the culture. I have taken my daughters with me on a couple of occasions.
This has been important for the Chinese to see my full life, taking my family to meet their family.
Next week, we are taking a look at the changing workplace health and safety landscape in corporate New Zealand triggered by the Pike River tragedy. With a new Crown agency, Worksafe NZ, being set up to regulate workplace health and safety by the end of 2013, and much more stringent enforcement measures including heavy fines and corporate manslaughter, it's time all businesses checke that their house is in order.
