WINENEWS SURVEY - IN 2011, THANKS TO EXPORTS WINERIES INCREASED SALES 93%. THE FUTURE? POSITIVE FOR 53%, SAY THE 25 MOST IMPORTANT WINERIES IN ITALY THAT TOGETHER TURNOVER 1.8 BILLION EUROS

93% of Italy’s most important wineries will be closing 2011 in the positive, as the ending year has brought an average sales increase of 8% (over the same period in 2010). This trend will be reflected also in the upcoming Christmas holidays that for 32% mean around a 27% average increase in sales.
The future is bright for 53% that expressed a quite positive “sentiment” also for 2012. At least that is how 25 of the most important Italian wine companies for history, image and sales (which together represent a turnover of 1.8 billion euros), responded in the www.winenews.it survey, one of the most clicked communication sites in the world on Italian wine. The 25 Italian wine companies that took part in the Winenews survey (which will be presented tomorrow in Soave, at the International Forum “Vinum Loci: the evolution of the wine market. The value of the land, the value of the wine: global excellence”) do not represent a “scientific sample”. They are instead an influential panel of companies that sums up the reality of the consolidated fund, made up of the brands already established on major foreign markets and able to “bite” the new ones with solid and articulate commercial networks, able to feed exports that, once again, confirm they are the main driver for development of the “tri-colored” labels.
The detailed work of the Italian wine companies in their “core business” (ever more acclaimed) - foreign markets, identifies a concentration of efforts especially in the U.S. (81% of the sample), Asia (75%), Europe (56%), South America (25%) and Canada. On the one hand, there is a revival of the historical and more mature markets and on the other, the intensification of trade, even on so-called emerging markets.
These strategies are especially interesting to companies with a strong “specific economic weight” (the sample surveyed expresses a total turnover of 1.8 billion euros) and more developed entrepreneurial skills. Despite a particularly difficult year in general and still uncertain outcomes, this analysis has allowed Italian vineyards to confirm their commercial viability, already demonstrated in 2010, reaffirming their strength and ability to react to the strong winds of crisis that continue to threaten the world. This also explains the optimism the 25 wineries expressed about the future that do not seem particularly frightened by the global financial crisis, given that 53% declared a quite positive “sentiment” about the future of the business and the overall sector, further “reinforced” by 37% positive, against 10% negative.
Moving on to the less “satisfied” wineries that declared a stable sales performance compared to 2010 (7%), they have not shown interruptions in the positive trend that began in 2010. Even production companies that do not indicate major growth opportunities in sales for the upcoming Christmas holidays, according to WineNews, one of the most clicked communication sites in the Italian wine world, 68% declare no decreases or arrests in their flow of sales, but rather not particularly remarkable percentages: 3% on the average. The voice of these wine companies is marginal compared to the overall picture of the Italian wine world, characterized by a wealth of pulverized enterprises and still rather weak turnovers. And they are definitely suffering because of the current state of the world economy.