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ITALY<br />
FOCUS<br />
A GATEWAY TO THE US MARKET<br />
Similarly, the purchase of Connecticut-based<br />
Italian import company Votto Vines Importing<br />
is strategically designed to ramp up the group’s<br />
presence in the all-important US market. The<br />
small-medium importer established by the Votto<br />
family has an office in New York and its headquarters<br />
in Connecticut. Its role will be to provide a<br />
gateway to the United States for a notoriously<br />
fragmented Italian wine industry. “Many Italian<br />
wine companies are too small and not organised<br />
enough to push their wines in the right channels<br />
and markets through a well-defined proposition<br />
and positioning. Prosit Group aims to bring<br />
together wineries with amazing potential to<br />
create synergies, especially in marketing, distribution,<br />
sales and production, helping individual<br />
companies to develop a more complex proposition<br />
without wresting control of them”, stresses<br />
Maruffa.<br />
“OUR FOCUS IS ON WINERIES WITH GREAT, UNEXPRESSED<br />
POTENTIAL”, EXPLAINS PROSIT GROUP HEAD OF<br />
MARKETING LUCA MARUFFA<br />
CATERING TO MULTIPLE MARKETS<br />
The US is just one market, albeit a significant<br />
one, out of a collection of 60 different destinations<br />
where Prosit Group now ships in excess of<br />
26.5 million bottles of wine generating 83 million<br />
euros in revenue. “Aside from the US, one of our<br />
most important markets currently is Canada, particularly<br />
Quebec”, explains Maruffa. “Torrevento is<br />
also well-established in Germany and we’re doing<br />
well in Benelux with selected importers. South-East<br />
Asia is offering us the opportunity to open up new<br />
markets and closer to home, in Italy, we are developing<br />
the on-trade”. Innovation is viewed as a way of<br />
catering to multiple audiences and future-proofing<br />
the group – from screwcaps to the no-lo segment,<br />
lighter bottles and recycled paper for the packaging,<br />
a multi-pronged approach aims to respond to<br />
a wide range of needs, “without betraying the identity<br />
of the companies because the wines produced<br />
show great typicity”. Although the number of<br />
acquisitions over the past five years has been staggering,<br />
and led to the ongoing rebranding process,<br />
there is every likelihood that it will continue going<br />
forward. “We are always looking for new acquisitions”,<br />
confirms Dagnino. Watch this space….<br />
THE FORMER CO-OPERATIVE WINERY IN MONTALCINO<br />
WAS DESIGNED BY AN ARCHITECT IN 2000<br />
SPRING 2024 • GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE<br />
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