CEO David Dearie has been rolling out the changes at Treasury Wine Estates (TWE). The company has established a new brand management model and has set up fine wine teams in the US, the UK and Australia. Its new specialist layer of top management for its key brands now reports directly to Dearie, which effectively enables each brand to operate as its own entity and business unit. Major national brands like Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Wynns and Rosemount are now able to plot their own business path, more able to make decisions in their own interests rather than to see themselves as part of a large folio. It could be argued that this is a necessary stage in the possible future divestment of brands, although Dearie has long expressed his wish to keep the farm together. The formation of the ‘fine wine’ UK business unit follows similar developments in Australia and the US. Specifically, this unit’s role is to build sales above GBP15 per bottle in on and off-premise trade, with particular reference to Penfolds, Wynns, Devil’s Lair and Wolf Blass. TWE, which demerged from the Foster’s Group in May last year, now operates as four regional businesses, in Australia and New Zealand, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa plus Asia. The company acknowledges that it needs to introduce more of its brands to the world market, and in my opinion has the rare opportunity to pair up brands with market requirements. Brands like Seppelt should perform in traditional markets, while one would expect Leo Buring’s rieslings to succeed in mature markets. Most Asian markets, which have been most strongly influenced by the wines of Bordeaux, are ripe for the picking with contemporary Australian cabernet, and I have always wondered why the Wynns label was not strongly promoted in these cities. It is encouraging to see the Wynns name as part of the brand group destined for the UK and hopefully for Asia, since I am one of many who believe in its potential to establish Australian cabernet as a force to be reckoned with in global markets, and to reduce our reliance on shiraz for export profile.
