If you are an industry professional in the wine and spirits trade in the UK, you might be familiar with the struggle to find a ready reckoner for all things wine. 

France, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and Spain largely contribute to the imported wine economy in the UK. As per a study by Statista, the import value from the top five countries of origin came to approximately 2.18 billion British pounds in 2020, of which 733 million came from France alone.

Getting your wine listed is an exhaustive, yet competitive process. They are almost always looking to find and recommend newer wines and therefore, vintners and wine owners need to find different ways to get their wines listed. If you are a winemaker, here is a guide to list your wines easily.

There are many ways to enter the UK markets. Traditional methods of entering via importers are still the most preferred method. However, this too has had quite an evolution. Different importers have different methodologies and belief systems when it comes to onboarding international wine onto their rosters. A lot goes into figuring out the perfect fit for the importer, audience, market, and business.

Pitch your wine around the year. Most importers are shuffling their rosters throughout the year. They all have varied downtimes that they often use to onboard new wines or might have special requests that might become the perfect opportunity to have your wine accepted. It is also important to understand the portfolio of the importer before you make a pitch. Look for the kind of wines they prefer — what varietal, region, year. An importer’s portfolio is largely aligned to their audience’s tastes. Position your pitch accordingly. 

A producer is expected to do their research way before they pitch. Ensure that you are pitching to the right person in the organization. Personalize your pitch to show that you know about the importer’s work and that you match up to their standards. Testify this understanding by talking about the features of your product that align with their standards. Make it explicit if you are rigid about the products that you want to sell or are happy to look at the needs of the market and adapt accordingly. 

Importers are often excited to entertain pitches that are well thought out and exhibit a solid understanding of the product and the market. If they don’t find the right fit, they are also happy to refer the wine to other suitable importers. As David Cartwright of Seckford highlights, “The ones that stand out are the producers that really understand the UK supply chain and the lead times and basic expectations there would be about doing business together. There are always opportunities so a bit of research before they send that first email will pay massive dividends.”

First impressions do make a huge difference. Your first email should reflect your understanding of this market as well as your credibility in your local markets. Go through their websites to understand their requirements better. You should explicitly mention your expectations at the outset. It is naturally expected that you lay out some reasonable expectations. Kim Wilson at North South Wines is really keen on the same. “First impressions really do count,” she says in conversation with Richard Siddle. “To have a charismatic, knowledgeable point of contact between us and someone at the winery makes a massive difference. The UK market works at a massive pace and we need to work with people who are quick and do not drag their heels.”

After you have thoroughly done your research, you should build a good portfolio of your wines. Take good pictures, write good descriptions, and make it easy for the importer to truly know your wine. Update the product websites, have a social media presence, build a media kit for the product. It helps the importers understand your impact on an existing audience and they can help you scale that better. Even better, send across some samples. Show them the product and leverage more of their attention. Importers can then use it to benchmark that wine against others in that price range and from that country or region to make an informed decision.

Focus on building a relationship. “They have not only got to understand the UK market, they have got to be personable and want to really do this. I get so many emails from producers who show you their award-winning wines, but they have not done their research. Producers come thinking we can talk to Tesco or Sainsbury’s whenever we like. It just does not work like that. We don’t have that option. It is down to them and we need producers to understand that from the outset as well.” says Matthew Johnson of Beyond Wines in a video interview with The Buyer.

Beyond Wines are reinventing the role of the wine supplier. Source: Beyond Wines

There will be hurdles and hiccups but the producer is also expected to gracefully work through them. One such hurdle occurs while setting the margin on products. Importers do want to give out a more premium than the producer would have made in a traditional distributor model. But the product also has to go out for a long term with a right and sustainable margin. It can therefore come as quite a shock to a producer when they put all the ex cellar, supply chain costs, shipping, logistics, duty, wholesaler and retailer margins, and VAT together on a spreadsheet and understand their A$10 wine is going to be at least £21 on a shelf in the UK to make the margin they need. 

The key is to arrive at an agreeable price amicably. It is recommended to not be rigid about payment terms from the get-go. While 30-day payment terms might be ideal for you, they might be difficult for an importer to promise and can affect your relationship.  Importers truly understand the market and their intuition is largely correct. Some importers might be interested in the producers and their spirit and recommend some changes to the wine, its packaging, and pricing to suit the needs of the UK Market. Kim Wilson is also interested in how to open a producer is to benchmark their wines against their competition is also a good sign to see what sort of business they are to work with. “All it might take is a few tweaks to the style to make it appropriate for the UK, but both sides need to be open and happy about that,” she adds.

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Importers from the UK today are also keen on discovering more innovative alternatives that cater to a varied audience. Be bold in telling them how you are doing things differently than the premier brands on their roster. The current trends in the UK markets also center on sustainability. If you are a producer naturally big on sustainability, talk about that through your pitch. If you are making products that appeal to diverse lifestyles, spend some time helping your promoter explore that. In the end, getting your wine listed in the UK is all about striking the right balance. The road from there is only upwards. 

Article by Prithvi Nagpal, Editor & Sommelier at Beverage Trade Network