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Colheita port brand wins first multiple listing
Premium port brand Kopke has won its first UK multiple listing after its 1996 Colheita Port launched with Marks and Spencer online.
The listing marks the first plank in producer Sogevinus’s plans to boost distribution in the strategic UK market across both the on- and off-trade for Kopke and its three other port brands, Calem, Barros and Burmester.
The company, which is the oldest port house, specializes in Colheita ports – single vintage tawny ports that are oak-aged in barrel – and claims to hold the largest volumes of the style in the world.
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M&S port buyer Dror Nativ said the retailer was excited to be bringing Colheita ports into the collection and had been impressed by the breadth of vintages and “rich and nuanced” styles in Kopke’s portfolio. “The 1996 stood out in particular for its delicious caramel and dried fruit flavours,” he said.
Sogevinus PR & communications director Tania Branco Oliveira described Colheita ports as having “great potential for the ready to drink category”, which are starting to “grab the attention” of national retailers.
The company’s UK port sales have doubled in the last year and remain a focus for further growth across both the on- and off-trade.
“Our identity is as a leader of Colheitas style and the gradual building [of the brands] is one of the main reasons we working in the UK, as the precursor for the rest of the world,” CEO Gonzalo Pedrosa told db last month.
Pedrosa also argued that the port sector needs to be more like the New World wine industry in terms of its approach to consumers and embrace innovation and create new opportunities for consumption in order to broaden the drink’s appeal to modern consumers.
The company has also adopted a dual strategy for growth, doubling production of its still wines and consolidating the range in order to make them stand out from its port business.
The move comes five years after a major restructure of the company in a bid to return it to profitability. As well as pulling some of its distribution contracts, it changed production and streamlined logistics from 3 sites to 1, reducing stocks from third parties, while restructuring the company by cutting around 50% of the workforce, and investing to increase the price of the products. By the end of 2015, the company had returned to profit, Pedrosa said.
“The company was in a tough position in 2011 and it was very hard work restructuring,” he said. “We cancelled a lot of contracts, but we preferred not to have the brand in the market than have it with the wrong people.”