Still on the topic of selling wines, only this time I'm going to talk about imported wines. First off, you'll notice that the subject header is 'Selling', not 'Marketing' - that's because given the low volumes and high costs in India, there's precious little marketing one can do, and it's best to focus on selling.
Second, as some readers may know, there are two price regimes for wines (indeed, all alcoholic beverages) imported into India: Duty Paid, where all customs duties (currently about 162 per cent of the CIF cost) are levied on the product, which is applicable to all wines available on retail shelves anywhere in the country, and Duty Free, where the customs duties are set off against a duty free licence obtained by hotels against their foreign exchange earnings.
Getting hold of wineries willing to sell their wines to India is easy: just go to any of the leading wine fairs overseas (ProWein Dusseldorf in March, Vinitaly Verona in April, London International Wine Fair in May or Vinexpo Bordeaux in June) and you will have a queue a mile long.
Importing wine into the country is also relatively easy: you should have a company (even a proprietary concern will do) to obtain an Import Export Code, tie-up with a Customs Bonded Warehouse (CWC or Tulsi Impex or Veritas, to mention a few), work out the costings, and you're all set.
One caution to first-time importers: remember that Customs charges interest @ 1.5 per cent per month of the deemed customs duty on wines held under bond for over 90 days - and that you have to compulsorily de-bond stocks after one year. As such, better to pay more freight but bring in only pallet-loads of wines rather than container-loads.
Then comes the hard part: getting your wines onto retail shelves/restaurant lists and down the gullets of consumers.
The process involves registering the labels and your prices with the state excise authorities of each city where you want to sell the wines - which, in turn, requires you to identify and sign up a distributor for each state who will do this for you (at your cost, of course). The procedure differs from state to state, and none of the excise departments has any useful instructions on its website.
A distributor will charge between 10 per cent to 20 per cent of his investment, but it is well worth the expense saved. Of course, you should have your own sales representatives to supervise the distributor's team's activities and to carry out 'marketing' functions (such as wine tasting).
Along the way, you will realise that the End Consumer Price (ECP) for your imported wines has ballooned to between 8 and 10 times the FOB price you paid - so something that started off at, say, $5 per bottle at a European port ends up with an MRP (Maximum Retail Price) of Rs 2,200 in Bangalore - and prices for imported wines are the lowest in Bangalore (when compared to Mumbai and Delhi)!
Wines I've Been Drinking: The latest wine on retail shelves here in Bangalore is SDU DEVA, from the SDU Winery some 70 km North of Bangalore which has just launched a Cabernet Sauvignon (Rs 600) and a Syrah (Rs 500). Produced from grapes grown on their own vineyards, the wines are well-made, with a clean fruit-forward character that is typical of winemaker Andrea Valentinuzzi's handiwork (he also consults Reveilo Wines Nashik), with outstanding packaging. SDU are the initials of the family members of the owners - Shambhavi, son Deva, and father Umesh - literally a case of putting your money where your art is!
Second, as some readers may know, there are two price regimes for wines (indeed, all alcoholic beverages) imported into India: Duty Paid, where all customs duties (currently about 162 per cent of the CIF cost) are levied on the product, which is applicable to all wines available on retail shelves anywhere in the country, and Duty Free, where the customs duties are set off against a duty free licence obtained by hotels against their foreign exchange earnings.
Getting hold of wineries willing to sell their wines to India is easy: just go to any of the leading wine fairs overseas (ProWein Dusseldorf in March, Vinitaly Verona in April, London International Wine Fair in May or Vinexpo Bordeaux in June) and you will have a queue a mile long.
Importing wine into the country is also relatively easy: you should have a company (even a proprietary concern will do) to obtain an Import Export Code, tie-up with a Customs Bonded Warehouse (CWC or Tulsi Impex or Veritas, to mention a few), work out the costings, and you're all set.
One caution to first-time importers: remember that Customs charges interest @ 1.5 per cent per month of the deemed customs duty on wines held under bond for over 90 days - and that you have to compulsorily de-bond stocks after one year. As such, better to pay more freight but bring in only pallet-loads of wines rather than container-loads.
Then comes the hard part: getting your wines onto retail shelves/restaurant lists and down the gullets of consumers.
The process involves registering the labels and your prices with the state excise authorities of each city where you want to sell the wines - which, in turn, requires you to identify and sign up a distributor for each state who will do this for you (at your cost, of course). The procedure differs from state to state, and none of the excise departments has any useful instructions on its website.
A distributor will charge between 10 per cent to 20 per cent of his investment, but it is well worth the expense saved. Of course, you should have your own sales representatives to supervise the distributor's team's activities and to carry out 'marketing' functions (such as wine tasting).
Along the way, you will realise that the End Consumer Price (ECP) for your imported wines has ballooned to between 8 and 10 times the FOB price you paid - so something that started off at, say, $5 per bottle at a European port ends up with an MRP (Maximum Retail Price) of Rs 2,200 in Bangalore - and prices for imported wines are the lowest in Bangalore (when compared to Mumbai and Delhi)!
Wines I've Been Drinking: The latest wine on retail shelves here in Bangalore is SDU DEVA, from the SDU Winery some 70 km North of Bangalore which has just launched a Cabernet Sauvignon (Rs 600) and a Syrah (Rs 500). Produced from grapes grown on their own vineyards, the wines are well-made, with a clean fruit-forward character that is typical of winemaker Andrea Valentinuzzi's handiwork (he also consults Reveilo Wines Nashik), with outstanding packaging. SDU are the initials of the family members of the owners - Shambhavi, son Deva, and father Umesh - literally a case of putting your money where your art is!
Alok Chandra is a Bangalore-based wine consultant