By Andrew Starke
Wine Australia will next month (June) embark on its first ever national regional roadshow to communicate with the wine sector about future directions and the current state of play within the industry.
The national roadshow aims to engage with the wine trade and highlight Wine Australia activities while also generating discussion about ongoing opportunities domestically and in key international markets.
Wine Australia’s regional directors from North America, Asia and UK/Ireland/Europe will visit Australia for the tour and will be joined by new market development general manager James Gosper, domestic marketing manager Annabel Mugford and other key senior staff.
“Feedback from the wine sector in the past 18 months is that they want to learn more about what we do, what opportunities are available to them and how we are addressing the issues facing the industry,” said Wine Australia CEO Andrew Cheesman.
“This is a great opportunity for Australia’s wine sector to meet key staff, understand our objectives and plans for the next 12 months, while also encouraging feedback and ideas about how we can work together.
“We will be visiting regions in all key states and will provide updates on the programs and initiatives we will be investing in on behalf of the wine sector.”
Cheesman said it was widely recognised that the wine sector continued to face challenges in a range of areas, including the profitability of the Australian category, macro-economic pressures such as the Australian dollar and global issues such as an oversupply of wine and increased competition form other wine-producing countries.
“We have recently worked closely with a broad cross-section of the wine sector to address these issues with our new marketing strategy and other initiatives and the roadshow is another opportunity to present this strategy,” he said.
“It allows us to communicate how the strategy has been developed to address the key issues facing the industry.”
There will also be opportunities to meet one-on-one with Gosper and regional directors from each key export market.
Dates and locations for the regional roadshow are as follows:
• Perth, June 13
• Margaret River, June 14
• McLaren Vale, June 16
• Barossa Valley, June 17
• Tasmania, June 20
• Melbourne, June 21
• Wangaratta, June 22
• Orange, June 23
• Hunter Valley, June 24
• Griffith, June 28
• Mildura, June 29
To register and find out more, click here.