BRL Hardy, Australia's second-largest wine producer, and South Africa's Stellenbosch Vineyards have joined forces to create a new brand, to be launched this autumn. The venture is intended to capitalise on the success of New World wines in Europe.
Stellenbosch’s South African vineyards are to produce the grapes for both the red and white wines, while BRL Hardy’s European sales and marketing teams will promote the brand to retailers and consumers. This is the first such collaboration between South African and Australian producers and, according to Stephen Millar, BRL Hardy’s managing director, the project aims to promote growing interest in South African wines and to establish an innovative, value-for-money SA brand in the European marketplace.
Hermann Böhmer, his counterpart at Stellenbosch Vineyards, said, ‘This joint venture builds on our strengths. We have the vineyard resource and winemaking expertise to produce the best possible wine and our partner has international distribution, sales and marketing impact in the world’s key markets.’
Christopher Carson, BRL Hardy Europe’s chief executive officer, said, ‘Given that the South African wine category is growing at 24 per cent year on year in the UK, this joint venture will enable BRL Hardy Europe to share in this market growth. There is no doubt,’ he continued, ‘that South Africa has the opportunity to be a major player in many European markets and we will be looking to become a key player in the sector.’
To date, there has been no announcement concerning the brand’s name, but the scale of production is scheduled to be in the million-case range.
Written by Natasha Hughes5 June 2002
