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McWilliam's revamps entire wine range to stand out in "staid" Australian category

Published:  29 April, 2014

 

McWilliam's, the family-owned Australian producer, has completely overhauled its portfolio of brands to ensure it has the right wines at the right price points for its target consumers.

McWilliam's, the family-owned Australian producer, has completely overhauled its portfolio of brands to ensure it has the right wines at the right price points for its target consumers.

The revamped ranges, including new tiers of wines, are being made available to the UK trade through its new UK distributors, Kingsland, following an extensive analysis of every part of its business, according to UK sales director, James Roberts.

He said the company felt the Australian branded wine category was becoming a "bit staid" and if it was to succeed in the long-term it needed to "go back to the drawing board" and come up with a portfolio of "new wines, in new tiers that best met the needs of our customers".

McWilliams, he added, had all the credentials of heritage and family winemaking, but needed to be "clearer about who we appealed to" and then do a better job at communicating its offer to those consumers.

At the heart of McWilliam's new strategy is to "differentiate itself" from potential rival brands and position itself as "more premium than other mainstream players" so that it could build a "sustainable future," stressed Roberts.

Its recent move to Kingsland from PLB was "hand in glove" with its overall strategy to re-position itself in the UK. Roberts said Kingsland was a good fit for McWilliams as it is also going through a period of change and becoming more focused around brands.

It would also be able to make use of Kingsland's bottling facility to UK bottle its Foundation wines (JJ McWilliam and Sunstone).

As part of the brand overhaul a new McWilliam's family crest has been created that will appear on all labels at all price points to "give some consistency to the brand".

A new Appellation tier of wines has been added to its portfolio which are made up of single varietal wines from high altitude vineyards across New South Wales, including Tumbarumba (Pinot Noir), Orange (Sauvignon Blanc), Canberra (Syrah) and Hilltops (Cabernet) and will be aimed at independents and specialist multiple retailers with a RRP of £14.99.

 The McWilliam's portfolio now consists of:

  • Foundation (JJ McWilliam and Sunstone - RRP £8.99) which is targeted at the supermarket and mainstream on-trade consumer and has been revamped with clearer varietal information for shelf and back-bar stand out.
  • Hanwood (RRP £9.99) range has a more contemporary label.  
  • Family Collection(RRP £12.99) featuring regional and varietal wines.
  • Its Appellation range (see above).
  • Flagship range of top end single varietal wines including Flagship 842 Tumbarumba Chardonnay and GDR Hilltops Cabernet single vineyard wines (RRP £19.99).

A new Elevation range featuring wines from cool climate regions will be released later in the year.

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