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WBM FEATURE - BLEASDALE WELL POSITIONED FOR 2010 SAYS NEW MD

After more than 30 years marketing Australia's most successful corporate wine brands, changing planes from the US to Adelaide the UK to Sydney as often as he changed shirts, Peter Perrin has just taken a right hand turn and headed for Langhorne Creek.

The man who made Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay a household name in the USA in the 1980s and launched the Wolf Blass Yellow Label phenomenon in the 1990s, was appointed Managing Director of Bleasdale Wines in November.

It may seem like an obscure pre-retirement move, until one talks to this experienced wine strategist who is now on his sixth wine career.

"The next ten years is going to be the era for family wine companies," Peter says. "There are a dozen or so medium sized family businesses in Australia which have quietly built up their expertise and capacity over the last ten years.

"They don't have major debt problems, they have good distribution and most importantly they are regionally focussed. They have a resonance with consumers that the big corporates have lost."

Peter says he didn't hesitate to throw his hat in the ring when the MD position came up at Bleasdale.

"It's the second oldest family owned wine company in Australia, next to Yalumba," he said. "Like Brown Brothers and McWilliams and Henschke and Tyrells, Bleasdale is ideally positioned to leverage its authenticity and regionality."

Peter started in the wine industry in the late 1970s as a junior sales rep for Fine Wines and Brandy, a division of Lindemans.  His bosses were Ray Kidd and Philip Laffer and he spent most of his time erecting cardboard displays for Sparkling Rhinegolde and Ben Ean Moselle in drive-in bottle departments.

Regionality to big wineries in the 1980s was an excuse to spread themselves thinly: Leo Buring expanded its Barossa identity to Coonawarra and Watervale and Lindemans grew from the Hunter Valley to Coonawarra and Clare.

Then came the start of the export boom.

"A lot of people think the 1990s were when the boom started but I was in the US in 1985 when Bin 65 Chardonnay was released," he said. "We had a leg up because Philip Morris owned Lindemans which gave us warehousing and logistics and offices.

"It was the 'shrimp on the barby era' when everyone was fascinated with Australia. We'd take the wine into a shop for a tasting and they'd say - sure, we'll give this Aussie wine a try.

"We weren't really marketing or even selling - we were taking orders."

In the late 1980s he met Wolf Blass who had just publicly listed his then small Barossa wine company.

"Wolf liked to travel and be the face of the brand and he offered me the Export Manager's role to open up new markets with him," Peter said. "Then came the 1990s and the whole thing exploded. Wolf was awarded International Winemaker of the Year, we opened offices in the US, the UK and then Asia.

"We had 30 staff servicing 50 states in the US with an office in North Carolina and Wolf Blass Yellow Label became the Number One selling wine brand in the North America.

"The US wanted flavour and Australia gave it to them. We had good wine and good infrastructure - it was too easy."

Peter laughs about the day one of his marketing staff proposed Blass's Greg Norman wine brand.

"I thought this will never work," he says. "In the first year it became a 100,000 case brand sold at high margins to golf clubs and resorts. It didn't matter what we did we just kept winning."

By then Wolf Blass had sold out to Mildara Blass and Managing Director Ray King was creating new brands – Robertson's Well, Jamieson's Run,– every second month and purchasing other wine companies to build shareholder wealth.

Suddenly it all stopped," Peter says. "Australia found itself in two camps - the over-priced Parker camp or the volume-driven YellowTail market. We had lost the profitable middle ground."

He is sanguine about the crashing and burning which has taken place over the last five years as company accountants have cut brands and relegated great old wine names to the scrap heap, all in the name of a short term quarterly result.

His own personal corporate experiments - firstly with Cheviot Bridge and then Cockatoo Ridge – have also left him wiser.

"As a small sized public company the pressure for immediate returns and continued growth can stifle marketing strategy," Peter said. "Fortunately those two companies brands are strong and will always be around. Wolf Blass always said, respect the brand."

So to Bleasdale.

"I known that despite all the doom and gloom there are plenty of companies going quietly about their business making good wine and sound returns," he said. "They are making a fair living, paying their growers, meeting their obligations and contributing to their communities.

"People all over the world haven't stopped drinking wine all of a sudden. They just need a more compelling reason to buy Australian.

"Bleasdale is ideally positioned  - it has a strong regional focus, it has good people, excellent vineyards, solid world wide distribution and it is self-sufficient with its own estate winery and bottling hall.

"The winery's production of around 100,000 cases per annum makes it very competitive internationally.

"It is big enough to be able to supply markets in Europe, the United States and South-East Asia as well as Australia but small enough to be flexible and fast moving in both product development and market penetration.

"Its regional specialisation has also enabled it to protect price points and not get caught up in the discounting battles between the big corporates. Most of Bleasdale's portfolio fits in the $15 to $20 a bottle range which is the most profitable category and it also sells premium wines up to $40 bottle so consumers can trade up."

Peter said the company had made some important restructuring decisions in the last few years. Negociants had taken on a long term Australian distribution agreement, experienced marketing professional Graeme McDonough had been retained for international brand building.

"Bleasdale will celebrate its 160th year in 2010," Peter said. "It's fair to say that this great old family winery hasn't made enough of its unique position in the Australian industry," Mr Perrin said.

"Many consumers are surprised at the multi-generational contribution the Potts family has made to winemaking and viticultural technology and the quality of wines we produce. We hope to make more of that history in the 160th year as well as our commitment to Langhorne Creek.

"The region is now starting to be recognised by consumers for its silky Cabernet and Shiraz varietals, a result of its maritime influence. For many years this excellent fruit went into cross regional blends but now companies like Bleasdale, Bremerton and Brothers in Arms are really putting the region on the fine wine map."