Spar Austria has announced it is to 'increase its focus' on regional wine growers, boosting their sales in the retail channel and seeking to offset lost sales due to HoReCa closures.
According to Spar, many Austrian winemakers have struggled this year due to the closure of restaurants and bars, leading to 'significantly lower' sales.
Spar is rolling out a number of marketing campaigns to support the sale of regionally-produced wines, as well as increasing their store presence.
More than 75% of the wines sold via Spar Austria channels are produced domestically, with the balance coming from major wine nations such as France and Italy.
Regional Structure
“The regional Spar structure enables us to respond to the needs and output of wine growers," commented Spar Austria’s wine expert and buyer Anne Thysell.
"Under the Interspar initiative ‘The best from home!’, wine makers from the immediate vicinity of the store deliver their wines directly to the respective location. In this way, even smaller wine growers, whose quantities may not be sufficient to supply an entire region, can gain a foothold in the food retail sector."
Currently, more than 200 wine growers deliver wines to Spar, while the retailer's own winery, Weingut Schloss Fels, pays over 40 wine growers a fair base price (up to 100% above market price) for locally produced grapes.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
