Tim Lightbourne: Invivo Co-founder on NZ wine hitting a 10 year record shipment to the UK

The UK can’t seem to get enough of New Zealand wine. 

Latest data shows Sauvignon Blanc shipments hit a 10 year high – with 13.2 million bottles sent over summer. 

Exports are up 21% year on year, New Zealand now commanding around half of the $2.5 billion UK Sauvignon Blanc market, valued at NZ$1.37 billion. 

Invivo Co-founder Tim Lightbourne told Mike Hosking there’s been a shift in the UK away from heavy reds, with Sauv becoming the go to over things like Malbec, Shiraz, and Merlot. 

Plus, New Zealand wines are a premium to the category, he says, selling for about 17% more than the average bottle. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New insight meantime into our wine industry. Things look well,
they look awesome as far as they can work out
in Britain serving on blanc shipment's teen year high. Exports
are up twenty one percent year on year. We now
own about half of the two and a half billion
dollar UK save blanc market. Tim Lightburn is of course
co founder of ben Biever and he's back with us.
Tim morning, Ho, Mike, do you do well in the
UK as well as the industry?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, we do. It's one of our biggest markets actually,
and it's going really well for us.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
And so how does it work? Is it just serving
you on blanc or is it a few bits and
pieces as well?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's pretty much just seven on blancs doing a majority
of the volume up there. You know, UK had a
really good summer in New Zealand and saving on what
does it go to? You talked about August We sent
or the industry sent one point one million cases up there,
so about thirteen point two million bottles just in August.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Wowsers? And is it weather related economy? Because I would
have told you the British economy is a bit problematic.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It was they had good weather we would, we could
track there weather. Once we went over twenty twenty two degrees,
you could see New Zealand' Savenyon firing over the till
on that day, So that great great weather, but also
a general scheft away from heavy reds. So we can
see Malbeck, Charraz, Mirlow, Cabinet Sevenyon all down as well,
and Chadoney's down too. So New Zealand's Aavenyon has become

(01:16):
the go.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
To fantastic who competes with us in the subinion bloc
market in that part of the world warz that come
from South Africa or Chili or where.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, South Africa and Chili are of our main competitors.
Really a bat from the US, but mainly from South Africa.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
And what price point do we unload this stuff to
your average palm?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
So the positive is that we're premium to the whole category, right,
so we're about seventeen percent higher than the average bottle price,
so we're not giving the stuff away. We're still commanding
a premium, which is key.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's awesome. I talked to Philip greg In a couple
of weeks ago. We seem to grow now a lot
of grapes, the last season we had a tremendous number
of gropes. A lot of them got left on the vine.
Are we growing too many grapes or not?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's a balance, I think, you know, with this demand
at the moment, and if we can keep cracking the US,
we may not have enough. But it is a balance
every year, so we're just going to keep an eye
on it and not not lie the price too much.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
And what's your vibe on the serbing Yon Blanc story?
And you know, in a multi decade success story, is
the world ever going to get sick of what we do?
In the Serbingyon Blanc department.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
To give an indication, I was with two of the
largest retailers in the UK last week and they just
want to keep the pump on. They don't talk about
seveny ons at a getting saturated. They want to keep going.
Next week we're in the US and they're the same.
So but we're only half half markets of Australia at
the moment, so there's still plenty of room to grow.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Good to catch up. Appreciate it very much to Lightbourne,
who's out of in vibo.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
For more from the mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
News Talks.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
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