Aggressive marketing and exports, growth recipe in wine industry

“After the first two months, we are witnessing growth. It’s not strong growth, but we can speak of a 5-10% advance. We hope for a slight market rebound and we also have more aggressive marketing policies,” said Cătălin Grecu, marketing manager with Cotnari.

“We’re about to start exports to Russia. In one month at the latest, I believe we’ll start deliveries. We also have contacts with the markets of China, Korea, Ecuador, which we haven’t taken seriously, but analysing them, we can see they have an extraordinary potential,” Grecu said.

The company last year hit 25m-euro turnover, flat from 2009. For 2011, it budgeted 10% higher domestic sales and an over 50% increase for exports.

Whereas large firms are eyeing sales increases, small and medium-sized companies are rather cautious. S.E.R.V.E expects its sales to stay at 3m euros. The firm is present both on the domestic market, but also on foreign ones. Exports account for 30% in total sales.