Distell teams up with top Uk distributor Matthew Clark

Distell, South Africa’s biggest producer of wines and also the tenth biggest marketer of wines worldwide, is extending its presence in the UK’s on-trade channel with the appointment of Matthew Clark (MC) to represent five of its key brands.

MC is the UK’s leading and most respected distributor, representing producers throughout the world. It has won a range of industry awards for the high level at which it services the country’s extensive network of restaurant and pub chains, style bars as well as independent licensed premises.

The five Distell brands it is now representing are Nederburg, Fleur du Cap, Durbanville Hills, Pongracz and Drostdy-Hof.

Distell’s international director, Don Gallow, confirmed that the distributor was already in discussions with several pub chains regarding possible listings for these brands that spanned a variety of price points. He added that as a priority MC would be focusing on building support for Nederburg’s newly launched label, The Manor by Nederburg. This label had been developed exclusively for MC in the on-trade.

While the five brands had generally continued to record good volume growth in the UK, despite the persistence of tough trading conditions, Gallow said raising their on-trade profile would help to establish stronger loyalties with UK consumers.

“Matthew Clark’s thorough expertise and understanding of the UK on-trade’s needs and its knowledge of consumers and their changing spending patterns make the company well placed to maximise exposure for our brands”.

Wines of South Africa CEO, Su Birch said the partnership between Distell and Matthew Clark was “great news for the South African wine category.”

“In the on-trade, South Africa has seen a year-on-year increase in value sales of 23% for 2010,” said Birch. “The new partnership should see South Africa continuing to gain significant ground in sectors where there is room for further profitable growth.”

For the six months to December 31, 2010, Distell reported that it had improved its share of South Africa’s total bottled wine exports for the period.