Tesco plans to double Finest wine range

Tesco is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Finest brand with the introduction of a 2000 Vintage limited edition range as part of the retailer’s plan to increase its Finest wine range from 74 to 100 lines by the end of this year.

The news that Laura Jewell MW will join Tesco in August as product development manager sends out further signals about the supermarket’s commitment to developing its own label offer.

The Finest 2000 Vintage selection will feature between 10 and 14 wines, which will begin rolling out onto shelves in two weeks time. “It gives customers the chance to try mature wines,” explained Dan Jago, Tesco category director BWS.

Initial partners in this project include Baron de Ley for Rioja and Neil McGuigan for a Hunter Valley Semillon, a variety described by Jago as “one of the great aging white wines in the world.”

The average price across the Finest wine range currently stands at £9.14 a bottle and last year generated £12m as part of the Finest brand’s total £1.1 billion sales. While the lower price limit for these Finest wines is currently set at £6, Jago suggested “it’s likely to be £7 soon.”
 
The Finest brand played a key role in helping Tesco achieve 3.2% value growth in its premium category sales last year, compared with 0.3% premium growth across the recession-hit UK as a whole.

Wine may constitute a relatively small proportion of the Tesco Finest brand, which shifts a staggering 1.4 million of its traditional pork sausages every week, but these latest developments form part of Jago’s ambitious target to double his Finest sales.

Referring to the Finest range as “probably our strongest weapon”, Jago maintained: “Consumers are a lot more emotional about wine than we give them credit for. It’s important that Finest fulfils that role.”

While France and Australia continue to dominate the Finest selection, Jago also pointed to “significant growth” in representation from Argentina, Chile and Spain during 2010.

Acknowledging that “We’re looking more and more at sustainability,” as part of a wider aim to improve the Finest offer for consumers, Jago cited a recent decision to switch supplier for some of the brand’s Chilean range. “We sat down with Adolfo Hurtado at Cono Sur and he came up with something organic and carbon neutral. It just adds another opportunity for customers”, he explained.

This year has also seen the introduction of an Austrian Grüner Veltliner into the Finest range in response to customer demand, a move which Jago links closely to one of the retailer’s key ambitions for its Finest brand. “We can take a variety no one has heard of, get behind it, promote it and end up with something really quite mainstream,” he maintained, citing Fiano as a successful example.

Among the fresh candidates being lined up for this treatment are Vermentino from Sicily, Petit and Gros Manseng from the Côtes Catalan and a Grenache/Marsanne blend from Vin de Pays d’Oc, all of which will be added to the Finest range this year.

By contrast, Jago admitted: “Bordeaux and Burgundy are the most difficult regions for us to get Finest right.” In addition to the problem of obtaining sufficient quantities from these regions, Jago attributed consumer demand for a named producer or château as the reason why sales of a generic St Emilion under the Finest label had underperformed.

Nevertheless, Jago revealed: “We’re already looking at ’09 to see what we can start buying for 2011. I think there’ll be small châteaux out there really struggling to find a route to market.”

Further plans are also underway to revamp the Tesco Finest beer and cider offer. Jago pointed to collaborations with quirky Scottish firm Brewdog, as well as Marston’s and Thatchers cider.

Gabriel Savage, 02.07.2010