How IBWSS London looks to set the agenda for the global bulk wine industry
By Richard Siddle
When Sid Patel of America’s Beverage Trade Network thought of launching the first trade show dedicated to bulk wine and spirits in London he could have done without the world then turning in the worst global harvest of wine since 1961.
But nearly a year on since announcing the International Bulk Wine & Spirits Show was to follow up its first successful event in San Francisco in July last year, the doors are set to open in London at 9am February 26 for the inaugural European show.
There may be a lot less bulk wine around to be traded than he might have anticipated, but there is still a huge interest from the sector as a whole to get together and plot a way forward through 2018 and beyond, he told VINEX in London this week.
He is particularly pleased to have so many of the 1,500 plus registered visitors to attend from across Europe as well as the UK and London where the event is being held. Over the two-day show they will have the chance to visit and talk to close to 50 exhibitors that are coming from all over the world, as well as attend a conference of leading trade and bulk wine figures.
“We are all ready to go,” said Patel. “We have exhibitors coming from Australia, the US, including Kingston Estate Wine, the Wine Group, Spain, France and a lot more.”
He admitted hosting a bulk wine and spirits show is not straightforward as people involved in the sector are used to doing their business away from the spotlight of an exhibition trade floor.
Particularly in the US where the bulk and private label market is no way near as mature, organised or clear cut as it is in the UK and Europe.
“In the US there is still a lot of bulk and private label being done under the radar. It has always been there, but it is much more of a secretive industry than it is, for example, in the UK. A lot of that comes from the fact technically any retailer’s private label has to be made available for anyone to buy. But it is the fastest growing market in the US, everyone is jumping into private label as they look to take more control of their margins,” he explained.
The arrival of the major European hard discounters, Aldi and Lidl, is also having a big impact on the dynamics of the UK grocery retail market, added Patel.
Which is why the Beverage Trade Network launched the first IBWSS in San Francisco last year, and is following up with a second event in July.
“We were delighted with how successful it was and the intensity at the show. People were there to do business and there was zero room for anyone that was not interested in buying or selling wine. That’s what made the show such an exciting event to be part of,” said Patel.
It was also ideally located for the many Californian producers that are buyers of bulk wine themselves to use in blended wine, be it a Chilean Merlot or Argentine Malbec.
Well placed to know
Patel is well placed to know what importers, distributors, buyers and producers are all individually looking for from a trade event. For he has worked on both sides of the supply chain. First as a brand developer and producer when he created a range of private label wines and his own wine brand, Friday Monkey, a Yellow Tail-style wine from Australia, which he built up to be a 100,000 case business in the US.
He then got involved in his family’s retail business, which included up to 50 liquor stores in Delaware and New Jersey.
From where he spotted a gap in the market for what has become the Beverage Trade Network, and a networking platform and events company that looks to provide information to help buyers, distributors, importers to do business.
“I have been there. I have been part of those negotiations and talks and know the issues they are facing. The market in the US is particularly entrepreneurial. The way it is regulated makes it that way. It stops the situation like in the UK and Europe where a few retailers can have such control of the market.”
It is that commercial aspect to any wine deal that he hopes events like IBWSS help promote. “If you have five minutes to pitch your wine to a distributor, you might spend 30 seconds on the story about the wine, but four minutes 30 seconds talking about what you are going to do to help sell it for that distributor.”
Coming to London
And so to London. The attraction, he said, of hosting its first European show in London was clear. The UK remains the central hub of so much of the bottling, contract and bulk wine work being done anywhere in the world, but particularly in Europe.
“It is still very much the hub that everyone connected with bulk wine has to be involved with. It’s certainly still the gateway to Europe in the same way that San Francisco is the gateway to the US,” explained Patel. “Wineries and brokers want to come to the UK as this is where the business is being done. It’s the biggest private and own label market. Hence why it is such an important business meeting place as well.”
Visitors to the London IBWSS will be able to hold talks with major importers, distributors, brokers, bottlers, agencies and retailers.
Patel, though, also recognises he is launching a new trade show against an uncertain backdrop of raised prices due to currency exchange, the Brexit factor as well as the issue of reduced stocks after such a poor 2017 harvest.
But equally that makes it even more important that you are on top of where you need to be in your planning and strategy going forward.
Which is where the two-day business conference comes in which features a who’s who of the European, and UK bulk wine industry, in particular.
The full conference programme can be seen here but will involve an impressive line up of keynote talks and industry debates including:
- Clem Yates MW of Off-Piste Wines who will look at how importers and distributors can use bulk wine to help develop their own private label and branded wine strategy.
- Barry Dick MW, the new head of winemaking at Copestick Murray, the brand, import and development business, will look at the best ways to import bulk wines from different countries and look at the benefits of using different shipping formats, from Flexitanks to ISO tanks.
- Mark Lansley of Broadland Wineries, leading bulk wine bottling, but also wine development business, will look at how you can drive additional revenues by using bulk wine to highlight gaps in the branded wine and private label market.
- Neil Anderson and Paul Braydon of Kingsland Drinks, another leading bottling, but also market insights business, will examine how it has evolved as a business to provide consumer-driven solutions to buyers and customers.
* Mark Roberts of Lanchester Wines , another bulk wine branded and private label solutions provider, will join Robin Copestick , managing director of Copestick Murray, Neil Anderson of Kingsland Drinks and Denys Hornabrook, co-founder of VINEX, in a wide ranging debate looking at the challenges, opportunities and trends within the bulk wine sector.
- Bulk wine can be complicated. Shipping wine vast differences needs to be done right, which is why David Richardson of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association will look at the varying regulatory issues facing importers of bulk products.
- Clive Donaldson at Morrisons will look at bulk wine from the point of view of a major grocery supermarket chain and the options it now gives it to buy and source the most competitive, quality wines.
- Geoff Taylor of Campden BRI will look at the quality factors related to bulk wine and what big steps have been taken to improve the consistency of bulk wine.
* IBWSS London takes place at the Royal Horticultural Halls between February 27 and 28. You can still register to attend the event for free here, or pay to attend the conference at £175 for the two days, or £99 per day. The conference begins at 9am each day and the exhibition opens at 11am to 4pm.