Halewood Romania, a group held by one of the UK's most important independent winemakers, Halewood International, ended last year with an 8 million euro turnover, nearly 35% up on the previous year.
"A strong increase was seen for expensive wines, the special reserves, and this was doubled by the consolidation of the wines on the middle segment," said Mihai Chitic, general manager of Cramele Halewood (Halewood Wineries). This year's sales are estimated at 9 million euros.
Halewood Romania owns various brands of wine - Prahova Valley, Byzantium, Cherry Tree Mill, Blue, Danube Dracones, Millennium, Premiat and Galerie Roumaine - and the Red Square and Caribbean Twist energy drinks and alcopops (soft drinks with alcohol content).
The company is a smaller player on the sparkling wine market.
"Unfortunately we haven't been doing too well on the sparkling wine market, maybe because our bottles don't have a shiny look. We want to consolidate our position on this market in the second half of next year when we will probably run a marketing campaign," added Chitic.
He says that once Romania joins the EU, competition for wines priced between 1.8 and 3.5 euros - more than 80% of the market - will increase, in part due to forecasts of increased imports. "There are some small winemakers whose wines are not really well known on their markets of origin - such as Italy, Spain or France - that will look to sell their products on other markets. Then there are also the winemakers in the Republic of Moldova that will have a lot to say in this," Chitic explained.
Halewood Romania owns 320 hectares of vine in Dealu Mare, Sebes, Aiud and in the Murfatlar region. It will invest more than one million euros in replanting over 60 hectares of vine this year. "We decided to expand to the Murfatlar region: both because of the name the wines of this area enjoy abroad and because we need grapes of the white wine varieties that accumulate a lot of sugar," said Chitic. stelian.negrea@zf.ro
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
