Corney & Barrow HK: Looking ahead

Strengthening its on-trade presence and exploiting exclusive rights with premium wine brands is on the menu for C&B’s general manager, Thibaut Mathieu.

Speaking to the drinks business Hong Kong, Thibaut Mathieu, Corney & Barrow’s general manager reflects on the company’s six-year history in Hong Kong, though he himself only joined last year.

“We started with a team of six in our sales team, then went down to four and have now gone back up to seven. It’s taken this long to find a talented team who know the wine market in Hong Kong and have the background of 5-10 years’ experience working in the trade.”

Staffing issues aside, though Mathieu is confident with his team “where Asia is their home, as opposed to being brought over from London,” another area of focus is to build Corney & Barrow’s on-trade relations, though this “will take much more time and we’re approaching it cautiously.”

Though for its growing pool of private clients, Corney & Barrow can capitalize on its impressive exclusivity with Soldera, Pingus and Olivier Leflaive, and will add to its portfolio early next year with Oregon’s Saffron Field Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and Mendoza’s Ruca Malen.

“For our private clients it’s important to show them the history behind the wines and so we will start having more and more producers over to Hong Kong every month who represent our exclusives, starting with Jean Soubeyrand from Olivier Leflaive in December.”

Corney & Barrow may not have been in Hong Kong for all that long, but it’s been around long enough to witness the changes in Hong Kong’s ever-evolving and contrary market.

“Everyone talks about the impact of the austerity drive and of course it had an effect on Bordeaux sales but shouldn’t we focus on the positives? The biggest change we’ve seen is Burgundy, Burgundy, Burgundy. Everyone wants it, from the entry level to the premium end. Unfortunately, Rhône is not doing as well as everyone thinks it should be, but it just means we adapt our portfolio is suit a shifting market.

“We’re 230 years old as a company and are not looking for short-term responses to a fluctuating industry. We’re a family run business representing family run wineries and we’re not going to take our focus off the fact that we are here to sell wine.”