February 2006 - Wine Evolution Press Release

The 7th edition of the Wine Evolution, held in Paris on the 30th & 31st of January 2006 by Skalli & Rein, has received up to 300 managers from the Global Sales & Marketing forum.

More than 25 speakers, 40 journalists from more than 30 different countries have attended what Robert Joseph has called this year “the Davos of the Wine Industry”. Germany, UK, USA, India and China were topics discussed by many of the participants.

Consolidation in the wine industry has been a topic of a poll conducted during a session: most of the attendees agreed that consolidation will accelerate in the years to come and that survivors from this period will increase their profit margin on the long run. Participants were very enthusiastic about this consolidation.

Among the key quotes of this year, Thierry Jacquillat, former CEO of Pernod-Ricard said that “Even Coca-Cola has been forced to adapt its soda to different markets so French wines will have to do it as well”. Robert Joseph, the famous English writer agreed by saying that “hope was no longer a good strategy for the French wine industry”.

Mario Aron, VP of Asc Fine Wines in China declared: “China represents after many years of uncertainty a market with a lot of "green signals" if the proper rules of engagement are adhered to. Challenges are the pace of this fast development, the continuous rising demand for service excellence and human resources / training for this very young market.”

Rajeev Samant, CEO of one of the biggest Indian wine importer said that “Wine consumption in India is still very limited, even compared to China, but it will grow very rapidly in the next few years (25% in volume and 30% in value).; by 2010, India should hit 1.8m cases.”

During a fully-booked « Communication » workshop, Stéphane Rein, partner at Skalli & Rein has launched the « Wine Evolution Network », a new internet B2B community for managers of the industry that will be available on-line by June 2006.

Managers have also discussed « Packaging » thanks to the update of top executives from the glass and cork industries (Supreme Corq, Amorim and Saint-Gobain Emballage). Attendees have also enjoyed tasting new wines from Austria and Macedonia.