www.foodtechnology.co.nz 45 performance compares to their peers. They ask which destinations internationally hold the most value and pay price premiums. When we tell them where they are relative to other vineyards in the region and nationally, the most common reaction is ‘Wow, I’m actually underselling’. They are sometimes surprised that there’s no immediate ceiling within the DTIC channel,” Wilson says. Underselling, in both price and volume, is the most common scenario. “For example, Australia is our largest DTIC market at approximately 40%. If a vineyard is only at 30%, why? Are they not marketing correctly to the Australian market, or not capitalising on closing opportunities? We also benchmark e-commerce vs. physical sales.” Wilson says Hong Kong pays the biggest price premiums, followed by Singapore, with the Japanese market paying a 10-15% premium over what Australia or the UK will pay. Asian markets prefer red wine, which tends to have a higher price. Most New Zealand wine producers don’t have inhouse analysts, so nzwinemetrics sells information on a subscription basis along with other bespoke DTIC sales advisory services. It offers a free high-level national overview, and a further two levels of deeper detail for individual producers. The ability to combine analytics with a delivery service is unique in the market, Rimmer says. "We’re not data or tech specialists – we partnered with Mero to select the right analytics solution and align it to our software. This includes full support with data cleansing, extraction and analysis,” he says. Mero extracts and transforms raw data using a variety of tools – including open source tools to reduce cost. It then loads the cleansed data into a cloud-based Microsoft Azure database, then uses Microsoft Power BI and SQL Server for reporting. nzwinemetrics is now working to engage with regional and national industry bodies in the tourism and wine sectors. Rimmer recently presented to vineyards on varietal values, and say while 85% of the New Zealand wine industry traditional exports is sauvignon blanc, that’s not what visitors send home. “Pinot noir is number one, followed by merlots/cabernet blends and Chardonnay. People want what they can’t buy back home,” he says. “Nearly a quarter of all visitors to New Zealand are now actively taking a wine experience. Analytics can help New Zealand producers make the most of this massive opportunity. When wine tourism first became popular 15 years ago, selling a few bottles on a one-off basis was all that was possible. Today those full retail margin sales are now at least a case, often multiple cases per customer. But the most exciting part – yet to be fully realised – is that technology now enables producers to build ongoing sales relationships, lasting long after the consumers’ initial visit to their winery. It’s this extended sales opportunity that really helps producers achieve a worthwhile return on their commitment and investment to wine tourism.”
FT-Annual Directory 2018-eMag
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