How Brown Brothers became a succesful wine exporter

While Australian exports face a challenging global market combined with the impact of a devastating drought, our wine industry continues to prosper.

Much of this growth has been due to the explosion of Australian wine popularity in Britain, Europe and the US.

Yet, these positive figures have been the result of many years of persistence and hard work from our wine industry.

One Australian winery that has been successfully building its exporting arm of the business, since the mid 1970's, is Brown Brothers. A family owned business that began in 1889, in the charming rural area of Milawa, north east of Melbourne.

According to Ross Brown, the CEO of Brown Brothers, it was a hard task for Brown Brothers to get their wine initially accepted into the United Kingdom.

"We had to work against the perception that Australia knew nothing about wine and that we just produced copies of European wine with no unique characteristics," he says.

"When we started marketing our wine in England in the late 70's, distributors did not want to do business with us. They had always done business with Europe and considered us colonial," explains Ross Brown.

"In the 80's, Australian wines started to be recognised as providing good quality and value. We knew that consumers would like the taste of our wine, so we did countless tastings for consumers, where they could taste the friendlier flavours of Australian wines".

"By building one on one relationships with distributors and retail outlets and by developing consumer demand, we have been able to grow the UK and European market from $0 to $10 million a year making it our biggest export market".

Today, Australia is now the biggest importer of wine to the United Kingdom, exceeding both France and Italy. What seemed like an impossible task twenty years ago has now become a reality.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Australian wine export sales to the United States have grown by 31 per cent to $2.4 billion in the year to March 31, according to the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation.

Australia is now the second largest importer of wine to the US market.
Yet, the United States market is one in which Brown Brothers has only just re-entered.

Ross Brown says, "In 1996, we were selling 40,000 cases of wine to the USA representing $3 million in export sales. But the market was too big for us to operate effectively. There was no clear Australian wine category at the time and to be able to create a category, you need to be a very large company. The market was taking us where we did not want to go, so we decided to withdraw from the US market and focus our limited supply to areas that wanted us and where we could effectively manage our brand".

"We've only gone back to the US market in the last six months. There is now a clear category for Australian wines and our re-entry has been very successful. We are now able to define where we want to position ourselves, rather than the market taking us where it wants".
With the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing domestic sales of Australian wines declining, export markets are becoming increasingly important for winemakers.

While exporting represents an ideal opportunity for wine producers, Ross Brown cautions the need for wineries to thoroughly search for the right distributor.
"A lot of people appoint wine distributors because they want to make a quick sale. You really need to look at it as a long term marriage and not a one night stand of convenience".

"In the USA, we developed a five year business plan that has been signed off by both us and the importer. We want to be a niche product and not a commodity. You really need to find a partner that shares your vision. It is crucial to your export strategy".

"You also need to be upfront with your distributor about your limitations. The US market is so much larger than the Australian market and has a buying strength that is foreign to us. We met with a US restaurant chain that had 2 million guests per week and a requirement of 20,000 cases of wine. To be able to meet that requirement, you have to be aware of your resources and limitations. Otherwise, you could do harm to your US reputation by not being able to deliver".

Based on his many years of successful exporting, Ross firmly believes that export success is dependent upon developing skills such as exchange rate and export management - knowledge that cannot be gained from the domestic market.

"To succeed in exporting you really need a long term investment approach and you have to work hard at getting it right. You can't just throw wine at your distributor and think that your job is done. It has only just begun, as you now have to get the end customer interested in your product. Exporting is a lot of hard work, but the results are definitely worth it".

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