Wine in-depth: Companies Losing Ukraine(1)
The FINANCIAL -- Due to the financial crisis major Georgian wine exporters are claiming that 2009 will be a challenging year for them to keep the same sales figures as they had in 2008. The Ukrainian market which was one of the main export destinations for Georgian wine in 2008 is in the middle of a serious financial crisis and Ukrainian wine distributors are having problems with selling the product.
The “Prohibited in Russian” promo campaign initiated by the Georgian Government did a good job in the first part of 2008. In 2009 Georgian Wine Business is looking for new and more creative ideas to regain the Ukrainian market.
“If we compare the total sales of the last year and the forecast which we have at the moment for the year 2009 we should be expecting a 47% decrease in sales in Ukraine . However these are just forecasts and have their limitations,” Zurab Margvelashvili, Executive Director of TbilVino, told The FINANCIAL.
TbilVino, one of the biggest Georgian winemakers, has been awarded gold and silver medals at the Berlin Wine Trophy, the Berlin international wine contest, recently. The total export sales of TbilVino in 2008 equalled 1,118,412 bottles. Most of it was sold in Ukraine .
The company has three brands TbilVino, TbilVino Special Reserve and Georgian Valleys. These brands include 40 different wines in total, the costs of which vary from low to high end prices.
“The sales figures of January-February 2008 and the sales of January-February 2009, are almost the same, but this year expected increase will be 0%. Due to the global financial crisis in 2009 we’ll be trying to keep the same index as in 2008,” Shota Khobelia, Commercial Director of Teliani Valley told our reporter.
During the autumn harvest Teliani Valley received 3,400 tonnes of grapes, 300 tonnes, or 9%, of which was from its own vineyards. As of today the winery stores approximately 3 million litres of wine material and 250,000 litres of brandy liquid, according to Liberty Consumer owning 26% of the company. In September 2008 Teliani Valley’s market capitalization was 48 million.
In 9m 2008, Teliani Valley’s Net Income equalled GEL 0.36 million. The company’s revenue grew by 27% to GEL 8.54 million, while gross profit went up by 34%, to GEL 4.02 million.
