Greek Wine in the Spotlight: The Upward Trend in British Markets

At the moment, there are over ten British wine distribution companies with turnovers starting from 50 million pounds, something particularly enticing for targeting an increasingly broad representation of the Greek brand.

In recent years, we have heard a lot about Greek wine. On the one hand, there’s the ever-growing promotion and support of wine tourism, and on the other, a gradually ascending trajectory in sales.

However, how close are we really to establishing Greece as a wine brand in major international markets?

“Greece has about an 18-24 month time horizon to develop some elements of branding in the United Kingdom,” says Antonis Sioulis, managing partner of RECO Export and exclusive organizer and representative of the Greek presence in Greece and Cyprus at the London Wine Fair, which has been operating as a broker in the Food and Beverage sector since 1998, based in the United Kingdom.

After Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the United Kingdom has emerged as a leading global importer of wine, ranking second among the largest global wine importers. And this is compounded by a very significant factor: “Now is the period when UK wine buyers are looking for Greek labels, as immediately after the pandemic, Greek wines found themselves in the discovery zone,” he explains.

As for which other countries are competing with Greece in the zones of discovery, Mr. Sioulis mentions Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and India.

Recently, targeted actions have been initiated through road shows with some buyers, to get to know and understand Greek wine in depth (especially blends of up to two varieties).

The wineries participating

“We organize numerous trips throughout Greece so that buyers can visit Greek wineries,” he says, emphasizing that at the moment there are over ten British wine distribution companies with turnovers starting from 50 million pounds, something particularly enticing for targeting an increasingly broad representation of the Greek brand.

Up to now, the wineries participating in these road shows are: Sgouridis Wines, Fellaheen Winery, Adam Wines, Malamatina, Aidarini Winery, Kokkinos Winery, Orfanos Estate, Panagiotopoulos Wines, Strofilia, Nemea Winery, Thebian Land, Skouras Winery, Liebouros, and Frangos Wineries.

“It is particularly important that there is currently a great interest in Cretan wines, which we represent. I believe that Crete will be one of the next discovery zones – diamonds in the United Kingdom, with key examples being the Vilana, Vidiano, Thrapsathiri, and Moscato Spinas varieties, among others,” he informs us.

Until now, the lack of patience in the culture of Greek winemakers or delayed information (e.g., prices, packaging), amateurism in creating a good label combined with the lack of government mechanisms in subsidy, taxation, etc., hindered for many years the competitiveness of Greek wine on the international map.

Great growth potential

As the entire effort is completely new, it is difficult for Mr. Sioulis to refer to a quantitative target. As he says, the potential is enormous, considering that overall the Greek wine market is less than 0.1%. However, what he observes is that sales evidenced by Greek wine exports to the United Kingdom exceed 5 million pounds, recording a significant increase, considering that pre-pandemic levels barely touched 1 million pounds.

He is the exclusive organizer and representative of the Greek presence in Greece and Cyprus at the London Wine Fair, one of the largest wine exhibitions worldwide, from which the largest buyers from London, the Midlands, and part of Wales pass through.

Finally, we remind you that RECO Exports exports to the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, with clients including supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrisons, Woolworths, ThreeSixty, City’Super, ICA, and Coop, among others. At the same time, it is positioned in smaller markets such as Macau, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Scandinavian countries, and the United Arab Emirates, with products such as snacks, health food items, olive oil and olive products, dairy products, and desserts, branded and private label (organic and conventional) produced by established companies within and outside the EU.

*Published in the “Sunday’s Afternoon”.