LIWF fares well despite troubled trading times

London International Wine Fair organisers Brintex reported that visitor numbers for last week’s exhibition were up on the previous year, despite the show facing competition from Vinexpo and the recent Prowein show in Germany.

The three-day trade show from 17-19 May attracted a total attendance of 13,745 – a slight increase on the 2010 total of 13,684.

James Murray, event director, said: “The feedback we have received so far about this year’s show has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Despite tough economic trading conditions, UK agents were out in force alongside pavilions from all the major wine producing nations, as well as exciting emerging markets.

“Lebanon, India and Russia reported positive business leads and gave a feeling of optimism for the coming months.

"While we’re pleased that we have seen a slight increase in the visitor numbers this year, it is the quality of those visiting that is key to our exhibitors, and many have reported their most successful show for many years.”

Alliance Wine’s marketing director Giles Cooke MW, said: “As ever, there were very high quality attendees over the course of the three days. We have had plenty of very constructive meetings with lots of results in the bag.”

Jeremy Rockett, marketing director at Gonzlez Byáss, added: “We have had some very high quality journalists, customers and other visitors. Every year opportunities come out of the Fair that we could never predict.”

With the dust now settled on the ExCel fair, attention now switches to Bordeaux, where Vinexpo is gearing up to open its doors on Sunday, 19 June.

As the countdown to the wine trade’s biggest trade fair gathers pace, Vinexpo chief executive Robert Beynat has called on French wine producers to focus more of their attention on exports in an effort to counter a decline in consumption in their domestic market.

Speaking to the drinks business ahead of the show, Beynat said: “France is still the world’s leading exporter of wine, but consumption in France is decreasing. Of course, France is the leading country in terms of consumption per capita along with Italy – at around 50 litres per head – but while Italy is stabilising in this respect, France is decreasing.

“Hence the challenge now for French producers is to turn their attention to the export markets.

“They may lose out in terms of volume, but France remains by far the biggest market in terms of value – around US$7.7 billion [£4.8bn] in 2009, while Italy, in second place, was well behind on around US$4.4bn.”

Meanwhile, the UK is fast cementing its position as the world’s most important wine market, though Asia – and China in particular – is rapidly becoming the region in which the most value can be found.

The UK has overtaken France for consumer spending on wine and consolidated its position as the world’s biggest wine-importing market, according to latest industry data produced by Vinexpo and IWSR.

Beynat believes the UK is comparable to Asia for the trade if it is looking at major growth markets.

“The UK is the number one importer of wine in the world,” he reminded db.

“The population is increasing and we are seeing a shift in the consumer dynamic, with traditional consumers now joined by lots of new consumers who are just starting to explore and understand wine.

“This is particularly true with women. It used to be the tradition that the men would always buy the wine, but today we see it is the women at the supermarket who are bringing the wine home, and they want to learn more about it.”

A full guide to this year’s Vinexpo will appear in the June edition of the drinks business.

Alan Lodge, 25.05.2011