Fetzer prepares for “rebirth”

Concha y Toro looks set to build a more premium position for its Fetzer brand, which may help California to bridge the wide gap on UK shelves between its entry level and top end brands.

“We believe we will really see the rebirth of the Fetzer brand,” promised Blanca Bustamante, deputy communications manager for Concha Y Toro, which bought Fetzer together with a number of other brands such as organic producer Bonterra, from Brown-Forman in March 2011.

Since the completion of that acquisition, Bustamante reported: “We have made a lot of adjustments in the structure there, but the important thing is that all the winemaking and operations teams have remained untouched.”

Confirming that “almost 90% of the volume we bought was premium priced,” a level she qualified as covering an FOB case price of US$45 and above, Bustamante continued: “The team realised they needed to strengthen the portfolio in the upper tiers.”

Outlining some of the early changes implemented under the leadership of Concha Y Toro’s former global marketing manager Giancarlo Bianchetti, who is now heading up its Fetzer operation, Bustamante noted: “Already there is more premium labelling – it looks fresher – and the same with Bonterra.”

Insisting that the company was holding back from any major announcement “until we have the figures to support,” Bustamante predicted that further information about plans for the brand would begin to emerge “hopefully at the beginning of next year.”

However, she confirmed: “With Fetzer we want to move upwards. People know the brand and like it, but it needed investment.”