Food, retail companies expand into wine biz

By Park Ji-won

Food and retail companies are expanding into wines whose consumption has been on the gradual rise in recent past years.

Paris Baguette, a nationwide bakery chain run by SPC Group, plans to increase the number of outlets selling wine products from 800 to 1,500 by 2015. It also plans to provide up to 20 different wines by adding 12 new ones, mainly white wines and sparkling wines, which go well with the cakes and desserts it sells.

“We decided to expand into wine products to create synergy with our main product, bread, and try to disperse the culture of bread and wine among Korean customers,” a company official said.

“The move is the first step. We will expand into the wine business permanently if we achieve all our goals for 2015,” Song added.

Korean supermarkets are also promoting both their own wines and exclusive imported wines to capitalize on the growing popularity of wine.

Homeplus, the Korean supermarket unit of British retail giant Tesco, has been promoting its original wine brand, Finest Wines in Korea. It is now trying to set trends in the Asian wine market starting with Korea. On Jan. 14, the firm announced plans to actively export its Finest Wines series to four Asian countries, namely Thailand, China, Malaysia and Korea.

Shinsegae’s supermarket chain e-mart has introduced the Chilean wine brand, Los Vascos, to commemorate the supermarket’s 20th anniversary last October. Los Vascos wines are made by Chateau Lafite Rothschild, a prestigious wine-maker in Bordeaux, France, and are exclusively imported into Korea by e-mart.

“We are going to introduce three exclusive wines in our supermarket chain after the success of Los Vascos,” an e-mart official surnamed Gong said.

“The import of wines has grown bigger than ever before.”

Similarly, Lotte Group has introduced three wines under the label Trois L in December. The group imports the wines from France, Germany and Italy, and sells them through its various retail channels, namely Lotte Mart, Lotte Super and 7-Eleven.

“By buying many different wines at the same time, we can promote budget wines to customers,” merchandising manager Lee Young-eun at Lotte Mart said.

“We are aware of the importance of wine product lines, so there could be competition between our merchandising directors and those of other retail firms,” Kim Hyung-pyo at Lotte Mart said.

Wine consumption in Korea has grown by more than 10 percent every year over the past few years, according to Homeplus.

“Wine is getting more and more popular among customers, becoming more common in their everyday life and expanding the size of the wine market,” a market insider said.

action against any volatility in the domestic financial market as several emerging economies are already showing signs of instability.”

In its recent statement, the IMF said that a number of developing countries have been urged to take action to improve their financial health.