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 Imagine an organisation of 19 people working full time to help increase the export of wines of a country, which was negligible barely 25 years ago due to Apartheid! And only one of whose several activities is to organise the Cape Wine show that brings the South African producers on a common platform in Cape Town and gets around 60 countries to attend!
‘Wines of South Africa’ (WOSA) is a small non-profit industry organisation constituted in 1999 to promote the export of South African wines and with international offices in countries like UK, US and Hong Kong to conquer the world a region at a time! It started organising the wine show 1n 2000; the last Show being in 2015 in which importers, sommeliers and journalists from 58 countries took part. A fairly big contingent from India was invited in 2012 when Arora was invited too-but that was during the waning period when South Africa had started losing hope on the Indian market. The next one is in 2018; India is unlikely to be invited for paucity of funds, she says.
‘Unfortunately, WOSA works with very limited budgets and we give priority to a few select countries at a time. India was our focus initially but we realized that business was not growing as we had expected, due to high taxes and other barriers and we had to change our direction,’ says Siobhan Thompson who took over 3 years ago in 2013 from the previous CEO Sue Birch. Under Sue’s leadership, WOSA had invested for several years in India, trying to promote the wine business but did not succeed much and changed its priorities. ‘We found there were too many barriers. We had similar experience in Brazil as well,’ says Siobhan as she talked of BRICS countries of which South Africa is also a member.
Siobhan is not an outsider to the wine and spirits industry. She used to be the General Manager of Marketing for the biggest Wine and Spirits Company in South Africa, Distell. She feels that South African industry is at an interesting juncture where the recent Swartland Revolution (the region has developed tremendously with names like the Sadie Family Wines and Mullineux rising to the top of the quality hierarchy), old vine projects and several innovations taking place.
‘Our Sustainable efforts and traceability of wines has been making good strides and yielding good results. In China where the market is small but we see a good growth potential, they can track our products. Our Appellation system is well established. Recognition of our products has been good. Writers like Jancis Robinson and Tim Atkins have reviewed our products and find them of fine quality.’ However, she concedes that Chinese market is not very easy and countries like Chile having a Trade Agreement have an edge over South Africa.
‘We have made a difference in perception of our quality in UK through our London office. Earlier our regular quality wines used to command a retail price of £4.99. We have been able to take to push up to £6.99 due to image makeover. The value is also increasing in our export figures,’ she says.
One of the areas where Siobhan has prioritised for WOSA is the USA. ‘In 2014, we decided to focus more on the USA- till then 70% of our exports had been limited to Europe. USA is a developed economy where they are drinking imported wines from Argentina, Chile, Australia and now South Africa has also made inroads, thanks to the efforts of WOSA. In USA it is not easy to work since there are 50 different markets due to the Federal nature but they have been making inroads because of their well structured laws and policies.’ She is frank enough to concede that it is easier to export to African countries.
Grapes
WOSA has opened an office in Hong Kong to promote sales to Hong Kong and China and participate regularly in the Wine Shows. ‘I believe we have great offerings, especially Chenin Blanc- and those made in  wooded style- and also from old vines. Pinotage is our unique growth. It has had its challenges in terms of quality. But rebirth is happening now, including in the Cape Blends where 30-70% of grapes must be Pinotage which must also be the dominant variety in the blend). Amarula is another product of unique nature that we are exporting successfully.’ (It is imported in India by Aspri Spirits and Wines).
Challenges
We face the challenges of limited investments. Unlike in Australia, New Zealand and Chile we have to support WOSA ourselves. ‘WOSA was started in the 1990’s and recognised by the Export Council since 2002wine exporter can become a member’, she says. Funds come from the small surcharge on each bottle exported and given to the organisation. ‘We do have fund raising activities to augment our budgets but there are limited opportunities. You could consider Cape Wine also such an activity though we always walk on tight rope. Despite the sponsorship, we want to make sure any Show does not run into losses and gives us some profits,’ she adds.
‘WOSA is working in different areas of promotion. The South Africa Sommelier Cup in the focused markets (India is naturally not one of them) in USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Kenya and China helps in brand-building. I feel that branding is the key to success in the long term. ‘
The list of activities undertaken by WOSA is very impressive and calls for another detailed article. For more information, please click Despite few critics and naysayers, Siobhan Thompson and her global band of 19 people, with 12 stationed in downtown Stellenbosch, are doing an enviable job within the budgetary constraints.
For a similar Article on how the Austrian Wine Marketing Board has successfully emulated the model with a small strength, please visit
If the rumour about a new organisation being launched by the government is true, they must study the two models, including the most important factor of collecting the money through legislation of a nominal amount per bottle sold or exported before proceeding any further.
Subhash Arora |