Villa Sandi maintains volume sales despite pandemic

Flavio Geretto, the export director for Villa Sandi, has revealed that the Prosecco producer has managed to keep its volume sales steady in 2020 despite the pandemic.

Villa Sandi’s export director Flavio Geretto has expanded the brand into eight new markets

“We sold the same volumes as 2019 thanks to a continuous search for new opportunities and to all the activities we’ve done this year to support our brands,” Geretto told db.

The company has also managed to expand its reach into eight new export markets this year, including Columbia, Venezuela and South Korea, despite the challenges that came with the coronavirus pandemic.

“You can find our Villa Sandi, La Gioiosa, Casa Gheller, Borgo Conventi and Opere Trevigiane brands on sale in 110 countries around the world,” Geretto said.

“The export team didn’t travel this year, so we needed to quickly find new ways of communicating with our partners and consumers, and to consider new off-trade and online opportunities,” he added.

Expanding its online reach, Villa Sandi launched two new social media sites in the UK and the US this year, along with a WeChat site in China.

“We had already implemented our digital marketing campaign in 2019 before the pandemic began to take shape,” Geretto said.

“The project started with our Villa Sandi and La Gioiosa blogs targeted at international consumers, which include educational videos in English featuring Villa Sandi’s winemaker, Stefano Gava.

“In a time when we can’t travel and connect with our customers in person, digital platforms are essential to any successful sales and market effort during this ‘new normal’,” Geretto said.

The firm’s off-trade focused La Gioiosa brand has launched a new digital media campaign in the UK and US including English-language social media platforms and educational resources in collaboration with Ethica Wines in the US and North South Wines in the UK.

“When the pandemic hit, it became clear that a dedicated social media presence in our main markets would be the key to having an impact while opportunities for direct interaction with our target clientele were limited,” Geretto said.

Villa Sandi launched a rosé Prosecco this year, which, the estate believes, has the potential to raise the image perception of Prosecco around the world. The estate produced one million bottles of Prosecco rosé DOC 2019, which it is selling in 20 international markets in addition to the domestic market.

To help spread the word about Villa Sandi in its key markets, the company has five brand ambassadors living in Germany, the UK, Russia, China and Hong Kong.

“It is very important when you can’t travel to have somebody trained who can represent the company and its brands in a proper way,” Geretto said.