- October 24, 2021
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Fratelli, which means brothers in Italian, is one of the leading wine companies in India, having achieved various milestones since its inception in 2007. Last year during the pandemic, it launched TiLT — wine in a can. Recently, the company also redesigned the labels on its single varietal range. In an interview with Business Today, Gaurav Sekhri, Partner & Director at Fratelli Wines, speaks on the impact of the pandemic, wine in a can, the redesigned labels and future plans. Here are the edited excerpts:
How did the pandemic impact you?
The alco-bev industry is directly aligned with the hospitality industry and discretionary spending. So, when the lockdowns were announced, it impacted us deeply. With restricted travel and people not going out to restaurants, our business was impacted severely. But what we also noticed was that there was a lot of pent-up demand and that came back with a vengeance. Once alcohol shops were opened, the retail sales jumped up and almost made up for whatever one had lost in institutional sales.
How are you doing now?
In FY21, which felt a major brunt of lockdowns, etc., we still finished with sales higher than FY 2019-2020. When things opened up this time last year, the sales were very robust. That resulted in us having higher sales than the previous year. In this year as well, sales were down in April and May. But as markets opened up, the pent-up demand resulted in people buying with a vengeance that really pushed sales. I am very optimistic that by the time we finish FY22, we should have seen about 25-30 per cent growth compared to FY21 in spite of having two wash-out months.
Institutional sales have also picked up. Of course, we still don’t have international tourists coming in, we don’t have large scale conferences or gatherings, but in spite of that, institutional sales have picked up. Last financial year, between our bottles business and cans business, we produced 3,00,000 cases. This financial year, all going well, we should be closer to the 4,00,000 number.
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What was the reasoning behind launching wine in a can? How is that doing?
It’s about approachability. It’s a very clear trend globally, how people don’t really like formality around things anymore, especially the younger consumers. It’s reflected in the way they like to consume products. Wine in a can does that. It provides a very good beverage without the formality around it. There is still some element of nervousness amongst people when they consume wine — is the glass right, have I opened it long enough, etc. Sometimes you just over complicate things. But to enjoy a good beverage you don’t need all the fuss.
Also, it is about the setting. If you are in a nice restaurant for dinner you will like your wine served in a nice glass. But if I am at a concert or a sports event, I would like to just open the can and drink. So, it is the setting that is determining how the beverage is consumed.
We are extremely bullish on the can segment. We are now available in 15 states. We have set up a second canning line in our facility.
You have recently launched your single varietal wines with a new label. Why did you do that now?
When we started the business, these were some of the first wines we launched. We have almost 30 different labels across price points and categories of wine. But these single varietals were the first ones to roll out in 2010. After that, we spent a decade just trying to build our range.
For the past two years, we were thinking that we should relook at our single varietal labels since they form a large part of our business and our consumers recognise them. We also got feedback from people that while the wines were amazing, the labels did not reflect that. So, we decided to go for a new look. The thought was to try and capture what Fratelli stands for. After discussing with design houses, we thought that the best way to reflect the brand is through the silhouette of the seven founding brothers of the Fratelli family.
What are your future plans? Is entering the hospitality industry on the cards?
Hospitality is a natural extension of the wine business, and it is something that we have thought of on and off. We have always deferred it as we first wanted to get our wine business right. We have done our research and in the near future you can expect something from us.
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