Color Us Yellow
Australia Barrels Ahead
By Fred Tibbitts Jr.
 Yellow, you say? Why yellow? Well, for starters, Australia presently
is exporting this wine brand called “Yellow Tail” to the United States
at a tremendous growth rate — 6.5 million cases in 2004, which is more
than the combined volume of the next two Australian wine brands — and
in doing so controlling six of the top 10 imported SKUs.
Just look at
some of the Australian wines imported into the United States: Jacob’s
Creek, Wyndham Estate, Lindemans, Penfolds, Rosemount Estate, Hardys,
Banrock Station, Alice White, Kelly’s Promise, Black Swan, Wolf Blass,
Black Opal, Reynold’s, Evans & Tate, Turkey Flat, Yalumba, Oxford
Landing, McWilliams and all those fun labels such as Little Penguin,
Little Boomey, Sally’s Paddock, Red Knot, White Knot, Koala Blue, Down
Under, Boonaroo, Norman’s, Innocent Bystander, Punter’s Corner, Zonte’s
Footstep, Kangaroo Ridge, Thirsty Lizard, Mad Fish, Four Emus, Ghost
Gum; Fair Dinkum, Dinky Do, Devil’s Marbles and Blue Tongue. Pretty
soon, every restaurant and wine store in America will be flying the
red, white, blue and yellow. And for bars?
Have Brand, Will Travel
To put it another way, the down under is up top, and buyers should be
aware. Although Italy may still be exporting slightly more wine to the
United States than Australia (they were according to the last report I
have seen), if it has not been passed already by Australia, it won’t
be long, thanks to our friends at the Yellow Tail and their worthy
competitor Australian wine exporters. Yellow Tail Shiraz now is the No.
1 imported red wine in America. Yellow Tail Merlot replaced Blackstone
Merlot as the top-selling Merlot, and Yellow Tail Chardonnay is now No.
2, only outsold by Kendall-Jackson. Australia has benefited as much in
terms of increased wine sales as China has benefited in terms of
increased manufacturing as a result of globalization. Have “Brand
Australia,” will travel.
Australian wines now are the top sellers in the United Kingdom
(presently the No. 1 wine consuming nation), and with Australia already
having surpassed Italy (or soon to) for the No. 1 spot in the United
States, which is expected to be the No. 1 wine consuming nation by
2008, Australia has achieved what France and Italy would have found
laughable only 10 years ago. It all began in 1996 at the annual Wine
Australia Conference at Sydney when Australia announced its “Vision
2025.” It put the wine world on notice that by 2025, it intended to
dominate the premium wine business worldwide.
At the time, Vision 2025 was considered little more than fiction by the
old world wine producing countries (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal,
Germany) and optimistic by new world wine countries (Chile, Argentina
and the rest of Latin America, South Africa, the United States and
Canada). Yet Australia actually is ahead of schedule to reach their
ambitious goal by 2025.
Supply Versus Demand
So why has Australia has been so successful cannot be attributed to any
single factor, but the fact that Australia has been able to create four
million-plus case brands (and the newcomers to the party , Yellow Tail
and Black Swan were achieved in a reltatively short time), a feat the
French have yet to achieve after several hundred years, says it all.
The revenue supplies the brand owners with the resources to develop
ever more sophisticated marketing strategies and global advertising
campaigns.
Now that the world is one marketplace with globalization, and the
global wine market is expanding rapidly, there’s plenty of business to
go around. In fact, they say if every adult in China drank just one
glass of wine a day, at present production levels, the world’s wine
producing and exporting countries (including China) could not satisfy
the demand.
See the Vision?
Now we all know that this is far from likely, right? Remember Vision
2025? Don’t be too quick to dismiss any potential development in terms
of future global wine demand What do I therefore predict as to the
future of Australian wines? How about Australia claiming the first one
hundred million case brand by 2025? Fiction, you say? Remember the
skepticism of the old world producers in 1996 (just nine years ago) to
Vision 2025? I’ve got a dollar that says I’m right. Let’s see what
happens by 2025. I’ll save this column just in case. We’ll chat then.
G’day, mates. NCB
Fred Tibbitts Jr. is the foremost wine-by-the-glass consultant to chain
hotels globally. He is president of his own global beverage consulting
agency, Fred Tibbitts & Associates Inc. Visit him online at
fredtibbitts.com.
|
