The grape leap forward

NIAMH GIVEN first came to Shenzhen to work for Liam Casey’s PCH seven years ago.

In 2010, she decided to take a chance on her own business, the online wine destination Crushed Grapes, which has seen the Dubliner win a nomination in a Young Achiever Award at the 2012 Women in Leadership Business Awards.

She set up the company with her husband Daniel Given as she noticed a growing interest in wine in China, as well as a strong rise in the online shopping market.

“I enjoy wine,” she said, “and we are targeting people who are interested in learning about wine.”

There is a massive market in China for both cheap and expensive wines, but they decided to focus instead on the middle of the market, looking at boutique wines from a select range of vineyards.

And it’s paying off. As well as their portfolio of 30 wines, Crushed Grape does bilingual online tutorials using video wine blogs. About 60 per cent of her customers are people ordering online and about 40 per cent of her customer base is Chinese.

“Ideally, we’d like more Chinese, and the number of Chinese is growing,” she said last week during a visit by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

“It was a big step out of my comfort zone to co-found Crushed Grapes, but I was passionate and believed there was a real opportunity. We’re building a wine community.”