Nothing to whine about with this canned export
Australian Financial Review - SPECIAL REPORT - Enterprise Quarterly
It takes bottle to put wine in a can and make it a success, reports Miriam Hechtman.
Wine companies have tried and failed to produce wine for the ready-to-drink market. But one small company has turned to experts to help with new technology and it has paid off with fast growth and export success. Wine-in-a-can (Vinsafe) is the brainchild and export success of Barokes, which exports to a number of international markets. Barokes predicts that in the 2006 financial year, it will export more than 2.15 million cans, and almost 4.5 million the following year, achieving 200 per cent growth in two years. Barokes chief executive Greg Stokes came up with the idea for wine in a can in 1996 when he nearly broke a bottle of wine in his jacuzzi while watching cricket. “We’re an outdoor country and we like to live in that environment, and bottles aren’t conducive to outdoor [wine] consumption,” he says.
A winemaker since 1984, Stokes knew that he would need expert advice to make a wine that was able to live in a can. “If you’re expecting people to drink wine out of can, you’ve also got to get the profile of the wine right so that you can actually consume the wine from the can itself.” A partnership between Stokes, a lawyer by trade, and winemaker Steve Barics was established that year and Barokes was born. The prime goal was to create packaging that would maintain the quality of the wine for an extended period. Without a blueprint, this process was a hit and miss venture for the partners and took five years to master.
“You can’t just take wine from a tank and pop it into a can because it won’t work, it will only last for about six months.” The first task was to create parameters for the wine to be able to live in a can. The expertise of master of wine Peter Scudamore-Smith was employed in the construction of the wine. The next step was to create the lining of the can so there was no interaction. This stage required the company to work with a can manufacturer. Refining the filling specifications to stabilise the wine was the final stage in the process and also required specialist advice.
Throughout this process, the wine was tested at laboratories such as the CSIRO and Anexus. “We’ve had to go to a lot of experts outside in order to build the product,” Stokes says. Once the product had been tested, the fledgling company’s strategy was to identify its export market. “In the business plan, we’d always targeted the overseas market first because Australians are good inventors but not good adopters.”
The company looked for a country that consumed products from cans and had no preconceived ideas about them. Japan fitted the description. “They view the quality of the product inside the can, not the can as the delivery mechanism,” Stokes says. Barokes sought expert advice from the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), a government-related body with offices in Australia that looks for products that suit the Japanese market. JETRO liked the product and advised the company to find a Japanese expatriate living in Australia to help it communicate with contacts in Japan.
“You’ve got to have complete faith in the vision that you’ve got and the determination to see it through,” Stokes says. “That will give you the ability to contact the agencies that deal in those countries and utilise their expertise to take it into the market.” He says it is crucial to visit a country you are exporting to and do the research on location. Once established and successful in Japan, the company received further advice through Austrade’s TradeStart program to consider expanding into other markets.
Part of Barokes’ success comes from its decision to outsource much of the production. Wine production is outsourced to seven wineries in Australia. The filling is also outsourced, as is the can manufacturing, because of the expertise and the quantities a can company is able to manufacture. Stokes says the company needed a can company willing to expand so it could focus on marketing rather than infrastructure.
With assistance from Melbourne patent attorney Callinan and Lawrie, Barokes holds the patent for its Wine-in-a-Can Vinsafe technology in Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and now Australia. It plans to secure the patent in the US by mid-2006. Having the patent provides Barokes with an additional strategy that helps grow the company globally and allows it to license the technology to other wine producers. “Secure your technology in the country that you’re going to and secure your trade marking on it,” Stokes says. “Because if it is successful, you need to be able to protect it.”
Growing offshore
· Once the product had been tested, the company’s strategy was to identify its export market.
· It’s crucial to visit the country you’re exporting to and do the research on location.
· Part of Baroke’s success comes from its decision to outsource production to expand the market faster.
