With vineyards in New South Wales and South Australia, Cranswick Wines Australia Pty Ltd was established in 1991 as an export-focused producer of Australian varietal white and red wine and has been shipping mainly to the UK. Regarding the greater Asian region as a key growth opportunity for Australian wine, the company flew to Hong Kong in May 2010 as part of the New South Wales Wine Promotion Trade Mission and met with four Hong Kong companies under the arrangement of the HKTDC Business Matching Service.
"My aim here is to look for business partners from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, and I am open to different possibilities of collaborations – joint venture; innovative marketing via the Internet; or exclusive agency. While we have different brands, we are thinking of dealing with one company for one brand," said Mr. Graham Cranswick-Smith, Managing Director of Cranswick Wine.
"Hong Kong is a small yet high profile and prestige market, and obviously the stepping stone to the Mainland, specifically Shenzhen and Guangzhou. I am quite amazed by the prosperous wine trade here with so many importers; the competition must be fierce," noted Mr. Cranswick-Smith.
After meeting with several Hong Kong companies of different scale, Mr. Cranswick-Smith expressed strong interest in three which are up to his expectation.
"One of the companies has been established for over 10 years; we do want somebody from Hong Kong that is experienced and well-connected. Another potential partner has good network in the Mainland, and our middle-level wine integrates well with their existing wine portfolio that inclines to high-end selections. I think our category of wines are becoming more sought-after in China and will help them generate volume sales. There is a third company that we have met before and are very likely to do some business with them," elaborated Mr. Cranswick-Smith.
Using the HKTDC Business Matching Service for the first time, Mr. Cranswick-Smith was very impressed.
"This is fantastic! They can find in advance the companies which are interested in Australian wine and doing business with us. This would have taken us at least 2 weeks if we did it ourselves but now we have done in one day with very good progress. So it really saves us time; and time is money!" remarked Mr. Cranswick-Smith.
