The FINANCIAL — Georgian wine company Georgian Wines and Spirits (GWS) has successfully completed negotiating processes with a distributor in the USA.
“The very first container will be loaded from our warehouse in the month of October this year,” Giorgi Teimurazishvili, Commercial Officer of the company GWS, told The FINANCIAL.
GWS is one of the first joint-stock companies producing wine and spirits in Georgia.
The company has been operating since 1994. From the beginning a project to set up GWS was carried out jointly with Dutch Royal Cooymans, the affiliated company of Pernod Ricard Group. Pernod Ricard is the world’s most outstanding holding company producing and distributing spirits and owning a market network throughout the world.
The charter capital of the company presently comes to USD 4,150,000. It includes 700 hectares of vineyard and vine land parcels. In 2000 the company had actually completed purchasing of 100% of stocks of its base factory – Telavi's wine producing factory called “Achinebuli”.
GWS has changed all its obsolete technologies into modern ones and has assembled a new and universal production line from Italy. It is capable of producing 27 various wines.
From 2009 one of the leading Georgian wine companies, Tbilvino, plans to penetrate the US market.
“In 2009 we are planning to produce 1,200,000 bottles of wine. The reserves of unsold wine from 2008 were 295,800 bottles,” says Beka Khergiani, Export Manager of JSC Tbilvino.
Tbilvino plans to pay for raw grape by varieties: Saperavi – 0.50 Tetri, Mtsvane – 0.60 Tetri, Rkatsiteli – 0.40 Tetri, Aleksandrouli – GEL 2.20, Mujuretuli – GEL 2.20.
“In 2008 our company occupied the foreign markets of China, Hong Kong, Sweden, Finland, and Ireland,” Khergiani notes.
Khergiani mentions that in 2008/2009 the company sold 1,700,000 litres of wine, while in 2007 they sold 530,000 litres.
“90% of total sales are from exported wine. 10% of total sales are those in the local market and 90% of total sales are on export markets,” he says.
Tbilvino occupies 10% of the total Georgian bottled wine market.
Company GWS is assuming that the quantity of bottles produced will hit the number of 1.5 million by the end of the 2009 calendar year.
“There are no reserves of unsold wine left over from last year. We are planning our manufacturing cycle according to the volumes we receive from our markets. Almost all of our distributors managed to complete their budget figures last year. There were some over budgeted distributors as well,” Teimurazishvili says.
Teimurazishvili notes that GWS is ready to pay the market price for raw grapes and this price will be determined right before the harvest time.
In 2008 GWS managed to occupy the new foreign markets of Lithuania and Armenia.
The approximate figures of sold wine of GWS are 1.1 million litres in the calendar year 2008 and approximately 0.7 million litres in 2009 (August included).
“In 2007 we sold approximately 1.05 million litres. 95% of total sold wine was from exports. We are exporting 95% of our products and 5% we sell on the local market,” Teimurazishvili declares.
Khergiani, Tbilvino, says that the price for wine might rise by 10% but most likely it will stay the same. “We have not yet decided. It will depend on the economic situation. Usually the prices of wine rise because of transportation, the cost of raw grapes, bottles and other materials,” he says.
“We are doing our best to maintain the prices on all of our products. No process of increase is expected,” Teimurazishvili notes.
As the main challenges of the wine company in 2009, GWS names the launching of products in new markets.
Meanwhile Khergiani, Tbilvino, says that the main challenge of wine companies in general in 2009 will be the overcoming of world financial crises.
For 2009 Tbilvino plans to start producing new brands of Wine: Caberne-Saperavi blends.
“Tbilvino is advertising its product on websites. We are members of e-trade portals like Alibaba, Importers.com, GWS etc. We also have a web page of company where our wines are advertised,” Khergiani notes.
Annual turnover of the company Tbilvino in 2008/2009 (8 Months) is GEL 10,207,000. “In comparison with 2007/2008 we expect to get a 20% increase,” Khergiani say.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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