Su has been CEO of WOSA for the past ten years and last year was named Drinks Business Woman of the Year. During her tenure the export of South African wine has increased from 100 million liters per year to 400 million. Here she speaks about the impending Soccer World Cup and the benefits which this event could bring to local wine marketing.

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Unlike most, South Africa’s wine industry is doing rather well in terms of exports, but this presents it with a problem in its attempts to be one of the world’s most ecologically sound wine making nations and self-styled ‘leader in production integrity’. 

Su Birch, Wines Of South Africa

 

 ’As we raise our export volumes of mostly bottled wines, we also increase our carbon emissions, so it becomes a delicate balancing act to enhance our sustainability profile while pushing up our output’, explained Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), one of the leading champions of the country’s efforts to grow, make and market wines in a way that is least harmful to the environment.

The response, just announced, is the introduction in South Africa of a 75 cl wine bottle that weighs only 350 grams, which will be available this year in time for Cape wine producers’ 2010 harvest.  Scheduled for a launch in mid April, these compare with an average bottle weight of over 500 grams just four years ago. 

 The new 350 gram glass bottles have been designed for screw cap closures, which account for over 65% of South Africa’s wine production. Meanwhile, the average weight of bottles sealed with corks has been reduced in weight from 570 grams to 460 grams, according to Birch.

According to Consol Glass, South Africa’s leading bottle manufacturer, until 2006 the average weight of a 750 ml non-returnable wine bottle was 516 grams, which by last year had dropped to 437 grams, a decrease of 15%. The new lightweight bottle will bring down the average still further.

 Birch added that alternative wine packaging, such as the wine pouch offered by the important export brand Arniston Bay, had also been welcomed in many export markets. South African bag-in-box wines are also particularly popular in Scandinavia. 

 ’On the face of it, one solution might be to ship more of our wines in bulk directly to their export destinations for off-shore bottling’, said Birch. ‘However, this poses a major problem in that many jobs would be lost during what must rank as the worst recession in current memory. Last year over a million jobs were shed in the formal sector, forcing many further millions of South Africans into a state of dire poverty.’

 She said the wine industry body, SA Wine Industry Information Systems (SAWIS), had calculated that for every 10 million litres of wine shipped in bulk, just over 107 jobs would be lost. ‘This figure does not even factor in the multiplier effect that such job losses bring. It has, for example, been reported that for every one of Unilever’s direct jobs in South Africa, another 22 workers depend on the company for at least a part of their livelihood. This is an indication of just how crucial each job is to a developing economy such as ours.’

 The wine industry currently provides direct employment for nearly 276,000 people, she said.

 Last year, South Africa exported 389 million litres of wine. Of the total, less than half – 150.5 million litres – was exported in bulk. ‘Fortunately, the volume of bulk exports dropped 18% in 2009, compared with the year before, whereas packaged exports rose 7% over the same period. This is not only good for individual brands and for jobs but for the quality standing of Brand South Africa.’

While bottle recycling programmes have been endorsed in South Africa in recent years,  the focus is now on introducing lightweight wine bottles as well.

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South African wines acheived the largest increase in UK market share in 2009 (10.4% of market to 12.3%, off-trade by volume)

South African category grew by 24% in value and 23% in volume for the same period

South Africa’s market share is only 0.1% behind France which is in decline

Exports to the UK were up 14% by volume, maintaining the UK’s position as the leading export market for the South African wine industry accounting for 32% of total global exports

Success from South Africa’s top brands helped to drive the category: First Cape, Kumala, Arniston Bay and KWV all grew significantly

There was an uplift of 15% by value above 5 pounds, a 27% increase above 7 pounds and a 43% increase above 10 pounds   

On the Wines of South Africa website, CEO Su Birch makes the observation that there had been a year on year global increase of 7% for South African packaged wine exports in 2009 compared with a drop of bulk sales of 18% . This is seen as positive trend and could an important stage in the evolution of the South African wine industry.

Wine corks

Strong growth in packaged South African wine exports last year were to Sweden (18%) and Canada (11%) as well as to Japan, Nigeria, Angola and China. The Netherlands, US and German markets had remained unchanged but Denmark had shown a decline of 5% which was partially offset by increased exports to Finland and Norway.

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