By Rob Boyd

Back in my very first blog article for Grape at the beginning of the year, I wrote of the fact that the First Quench group in the UK was in trouble and was in talks with landlords regarding the closure of stores. The wheels of the financial authorities turn more slowly in those established first world countries and it is only recently that the group has formally entered administration, but those administrators have announced plans to shut 373 outlets by 2 December. Obviously this is terrible news for the UK economy as it comes at a similar time to British Airways and Royal Bank of Scotland announcing plans for further retrenchments, uncertainty over the future of Vauxhall and general gloom about coming out of the recession, or worse (a second wave of the recession perhaps). More specific to the wine industry I see that Waitrose is following in the footsteps of Sainsbury's and offering 25% off the bottle price if you take 6 bottles. Large scale discounting is always a worry for any sales category as you battle to return perceived value to the pre-discount level, and wine is no different in this regard.

The UK is our major wine export focus and for good reason. We share a lot of common history, many Brits know and travel to South Africa, we are au fait with the business structures and understand the retail market and they speak English. It is also, however, probably the most important target to most other wine exporting countries, which means they have tremendous ability to negotiate price. Despite a static UK wine consumption over the last few years, South African wine producers have continued to prosper by increasing market share. No doubt due to producers own hard work, but also through the efforts of the hard working WOSA team in their Alt Grove offices, just near Wimbledon Central. Most of the comments I have seen regarding the recent Mega Tasting have been favourable - notwithstanding the fact that some parties are as always eager to criticise any initiative of WOSA.

Britain was, is, and will remain a very important part of any exporting strategy. I would however say, as I did at the beginning of the year, do not expect dynamic growth in the UK market as their economy is in worse shape than most. For South Africans there has been more good news than bad over the past year, but I hope our producers or distributors are not exposed by the liquidation of First Quench. For the rest, proceed with caution would be my advice.

On a lighter note, Britain's richest man, Roman Abramovitch,  recently dined out in New York and his bill for a table of five came to over $47 000. It did include five bottles of wine - two Petrus and three Romanee Conti - as well as a magnum of Cristal Rose. Now if he could just be persuaded to do this back home in London on occasion then he could single handedly improve the economic outlook.