{"id":5884,"date":"2016-12-29T03:41:47","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T19:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/?p=5884"},"modified":"2016-12-29T03:41:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T19:41:47","slug":"the-decanterchina-interview-pudao-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/?p=5884","title":{"rendered":"The DecanterChina interview: Pudao Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maxime Lu \/ \u9646\u6c5f<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Image: Marcus Ford at Decanter Asia Wine Awards judging week<\/figcaption>
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The new investor<\/b><\/p>\n

More than a year and half ago, the news broke that Pudao Wines<\/b>, together with its sister firm Summergate<\/b>, was purchased by Woolworths<\/a>, one of Australia\u2019s largest wine retailers.<\/p>\n

Marcus Ford<\/b>, general manager of Pudao, said the business \u2018has benefitted greatly over the course of the past 18 months in establishing more sophisticated systems and processes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018When Woolworth\u2019s acquired Dan Murphy\u2019s in Australia it too was a small retailer with a very few shops, [and] now it is the dominant wine retailer in the Australian market,\u2019 said Ford, hinting at the retailer\u2019s potential in Greater China.<\/p>\n

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The post-austerity period<\/b><\/p>\n

As a fine wine retailer that initially put great emphasis on the corporate gifting sector, Pudao has had to adapt to a new reality.<\/p>\n

\u2018Very few companies now use wine as a gift and those that do are more focused on value offerings than the super premiums of years gone by,\u2019 said Ford.<\/p>\n

Currently, most of Pudao\u2019s consumers are buying wines at between 100 to 500RMB (\u00a310-\u00a350) per bottle. \u2018Our customers are very open-minded about region and style.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amid general changes in the market, \u2018we have continued to grow at a healthy and sustainable rate\u2019, said Ford.<\/p>\n

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Try before you buy<\/b><\/p>\n

For Pudao Wines, which owns an online store and two offline shops, \u2018try before you buy\u2019 is the key in promoting wines to Chinese consumers, said Ford.<\/p>\n

The retailer therefore actively invites customers to try wines in their flagship stores in Shanghai and Beijing, and organises hundreds of tasting events, he said.<\/p>\n

Offering a specialised service is also important, said Ford. \u2018The majority of our staff came from a service background.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Fake wine: \u2018Not just a China problem\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Another concern that\u2019s stopping Chinese consumers from buying wines is the risk of getting fake wines.<\/p>\n

\u2018I would point out though that the fine wine market has problems globally and consumers need to be aware that this is not just a \u201cChina problem\u201d,\u2019 said Ford.<\/p>\n

\u2018We work with established importers and have great relationships with many, we are 100% focused on sourcing from the best.\u2019<\/p>\n

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China in the next 5 to 10 years<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018I think over the past 10 to 15 years the wine market in China has been through some very exciting and sometimes over-heated times,\u2019 said Ford.<\/p>\n

The next 5 to 10 years will see a \u2018more stable market\u2019 develop as consumers grow in confidence. A key element will be how domestic wines perform, and whether they can compete on quality and value against imported wines, said Ford.<\/p>\n

He added that Pudao Wines \u2018aims to open more stores over the coming years\u2019, but won\u2019t be rushed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Imported wine is really only a decade old in the China market so whilst we are ambitious we are also in no hurry to open a huge network of stores.<\/p>\n

\u2018In Hong Kong we have re-branded our business under the Langton\u2019s banner (part of the Group) and we are very excited about our fine wine brokerage service that is now up and running there.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Word of advice for people new to the wine business<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018Wine is a complex business with many layers- some wines are commodities, some are like fast moving consumer goods, some are boutique productions and some are like luxuries and collectibles.<\/p>\n

\u2018You need to be very precise about understanding your customers, what they are looking for and how as a retailer you can add value to their experience.\u2019<\/p>\n

Translated by Sylvia Wu \/ \u5434\u5609\u6ea6<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maxime Lu \/ \u9646\u6c5f 19 September 2016 Eighteen months after being purchased by Australia\u2019s Woolworths, Pudao Wines spoke exclusively to DecanterChina.com about its next steps forward. Image: Marcus Ford at Decanter Asia Wine Awards judging week The new investor More than a year and half ago, the news broke that Pudao Wines, together with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[582,3,1038],"tags":[1694,1896,1532,1897,217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5885,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5884\/revisions\/5885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wineblogchina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}