Marketing your products and services
Market entry
The popularity of Australian wines is steadily growing. This is recognised by Vinmonopolet, which predicts that both volume and number of Australian wines are likely to increase.
Many of Australia’s wine exporters have already established contacts. To gain increased market share it is important to offer competitively priced products and to meet the demands of buyers. European wine suppliers have modernised their operations in recent years and are keen to regain market share lost to new world suppliers.
New market entrants will often find distinct interest in their products among the newly licensed importers. It must be kept in mind, however, that the vast majority of wine sales are made through the retail sector, and that an importer who is not a specialist supplier to the restaurant trade will need a listing with Vinmonopolet in order to achieve significant sales.
Austrade Copenhagen assists Australian wine exporting companies in the development of an appropriate Scandinavian market entry strategy and offers a range of tailored market entry services including:
- Market overview - Scandinavian wine market information, the competitive environment, regulatory issues, pricing and trend analysis.
- Partner search and qualification - identification and short-listing of qualified importers, or other potential partners depending on your needs/requirements, with profiling of identified companies and qualification of their interest.
Additional information on these services is available upon request. Unless otherwise stated, all services are offered on a fee for service basis in accordance with Austrade client service policy.
Distribution channels
The sole retail outlet (off-trade) for alcohol products (wines, liquors and beer with an alcohol percentage higher than 4.75 per cent) is Vinmonopolet, which was founded in 1922 as a shareholders' company with the sole right to import and sell liquor and wines in Norway.
The distribution trade in Norway underwent radical changes in 1996 after Norway, as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), was obliged to abolish the import, wholesale and production monopolies previously held by Vinmonopolet. Vinmonopolet has now been restructured in such a way that it maintains a monopoly only with respect to off-premise retail sales. The company’s former production and wholesale divisions now operate as Arcus.
These arrangements have provided increased opportunities for marketing to restaurants, but in relation to the all-important over-the-counter trade, which accounts for about 85 per cent of all wine sales, the situation is unchanged - a listing is required with the retail monopoly.
There are over 100 licensed importers/wholesalers operating in the Norwegian market, of which most have established agreements with Vinmonopolet to supply wine for the retail trade. Vinmonopolet also maintains a sales-to-order list, and will accept individual orders. They can also arrange supply of a range of products not otherwise listed.
Vinmonopolet currently operates more than 200 retail outlets nation-wide, however, this number is continually increasing. Some attempts have been made in recent years to improve the atmosphere at Vinmonopolet’s boutiques, to increase the range of products available, and to better meet the wishes of customers. Self-service has been introduced in a number of outlets.
(Source: Vinmonopolet)
|