Major wine firms' activity in China challenged by leading importer

By Richard Siddle

Published: 10 January, 2014

Major international wine companies are accused of having questionable "principles" when looking to distribute overly inflated wine in to China.

That was the charge laid down by Ian Ford of major Chinese wine distributor, Summergate Wines, who challenged the attitudes and behaviour of some major wine companies operating in the country.

The situation was made worse, Ford argued, by the "explosion" in what he called "profiteering" wine distributors who had appeared in the country in recent years but have no long-term interest in the sector.

But, asked Ford, "who is complicit" among the international wine companies in working with these unscrupulous players? "Who is aiding and abetting that side of the industry?" he challenged.

It was a point supported by Cristian Lopez, corporate director for Asia at Concha y Toro who spoke of a "lot of guilt" in the supply chain in China. Some companies have developed a "Christmas tree" of sub-brands in the country, where there is "no motivation to build brands", he said.

Ford claimed that there were numerous instances of vastly over-priced wines being offered which had no historical or critical acclaim to support them.

Heavy bottles that had been removed from other markets for environmental reasons were now appearing in China. "All principles of climate change are going out of the window," Ford alleged.

He said there was a lot of talk in the media about the aims of some of these major companies in China. But objectively there were "very serious" concerns about whether these businesses were "taking the right path" when actually in the country.

He spoke of a "dark side" in which some companies operated in China and the danger of them chasing too high a margin for their wines.

The companies that have been or are the most successful in China were those willing to build their distribution "brick by brick" with the "right wines with the right values".

Lopez agreed. "There is no holy grail," he stressed. "It is not a consolidated market like the UK. You have to have an aspiration to build your brand there. You can't do it overnight."

But, he said, for wine companies entering the market, there "are temptations all over the place".

* Both were speaking at last year's Wine Vision event organised by Harpers publishers, William Reed Business Media. You can read more from the event in the special Wine Vision section of the website. Click here.

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