Treasury Wine’s Fruitful Chinese Research

More China Wine Market News…

Treasury Wine Estates Ltd. (TWE), Australia’s largest winemaker, plans to boost their share of Chinese gift sales.The company spent several hundred thousand dollars last year researching China’s wine-buyers, said David Dearie, chief executive officer. Treasury is using its findings to tailor products to Chinese consumers after success targeting Hispanic drinkers with Beringer’s Los Hermanos label in the U.S., he said. Treasury expects a “very big second half” from March and May releases of its Penfolds brand. Sales volumes to China and Hong Kong rose 24 percent in the first half of 2012, and the company expects total market demand to increase from between 120 million and 130 million nine-liter cases at present to 250 million to 500 million in five years, Dearie said.The company yesterday reported first-half profit of A$52 million ($53 million), beating analyst estimates. Treasury is also developing alternative packaging for wine given as gifts in China.“There’s so much rich pickings in wine if we just get creative,” Dearie said “We’ve been a little bit lazy as an industry and now is just the beginning of Chinese market for us.”