ON-TRADE: LADUMA: Playing fair

A group of the Cape’s industry leaders have created a wine brand to fund a training programme for disadvantaged young South Africans as wine servers in time for the 2010 World Cup. Charlotte Hey reports

The international wine trade is used to generic promotional bodies putting on tastings, organising consumer promotions and providing all manner of in-depth information about the wines of their country, but not necessarily producing a wine brand. In fact, when Wines of South Africa launched Project Laduma this summer it was probably an industry first.

As part of its involvement in the build up to South Africa hosting the World Cup in 2010, a group of industry visionaries got together to see how the South African wine industry could do their bit. This event has such wide-reaching implications, being the first of its kind to be held on the African continent,  that it seemed to some in the SA wine industry an opportunity too great to be missed. The initial group – which included Dr Paul Cluver, Paul Cluver Wines; Tim Rands, Vinimark; Charles Back, Fairview; and Michael Lutzeyer, Grootbos – soon realised that in order to make any kind of meaningful impact it would have to devise a plan that would work for the long term. The idea of creating a bespoke training programme for young people working in the on-trade in South Africa was decided upon, the idea being to make wine easier to understand for young men and women from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. The next challenge was where to get the money from in such a relatively short space of time.

After talking with Wines of South Africa’s CEO, Su Birch, and a number of other industry members the method of fundraising agreed was to launch a South African wine industry brand, the profit from which would pay for the training. With a target of South African R4.5 million (£300,000) to reach, the team set to work contacting and involving as many people as it could to pay for and set up the brand, provide the bottles and label design, the corks, the capsules… You name it they had to get as much as they possibly could sponsored. “We were all incredibly committed to the project as soon as we found out about it,” admits Birch, “but as with all things you never realise until you start how much work it is going to entail.”

The wine brand is called Fundi, and is a Zulu word meaning learner with a broader local meaning implying someone who is an expert. It will be mainly sold in the domestic market, although some will be available in selected international markets through on-line sales and in retail. Once the target monies have been raised the brand will be discontinued.

The main aim of Project Laduma, Laduma being the Zulu word for a goal in football, is to contribute to job creation in the South African on-trade by providing accessible and easy-to-understand wine training for young people linked with the World Cup. “There are going to be a lot of people visiting South Africa during the most important football tournament in the world,” adds Birch, “and this is a great way of not only bringing value to the on-trade in South Africa for the long term, but also helping in some way to ensure that World Cup visitors will have a positive wine when here in the Cape.” The candidates for the training are to be drawn half and half from unemployed people and from the hospitality industry. Wines of South Africa chose to work with a local company called Let’s Sell Lobster, who they had worked with previously. “What this company has done,” explains Birch, “is work out an education programme that is innovative and related very well to local cultural knowledge and metaphors. It has been so
well accepted by people who attended the course that we decided on their programme as the way forward.” Another great addition to the campaign this summer was the contribution, by the Winelands’ mayor, Clarence Johnson, of R250,000 (£17,350) to pay for the training of 120 people from his local area to participate in the programme, so that by the time the wine goes on sale this month the group will already have been trained.

Since the brand’s launch, reports are that progress is good and in the words of Dr Paul Cluver, involved in the project from the outset, “Project Laduma epitomises what we can do as an industry when we pull together behind a common and inspiring project.” It should also be an inspiration to other people involved in the wine industry about maximising the opportunities presented by major sporting events, especially with Team GB Olympic fever lingering in the public consciousness. Is the UK wine trade planning anything for 2012? If not, it should certainly think about it.

db © September 2008