Tim Lightbourne: Invivo Co-founder on the success of the wine in the US markets

Americans seem to love New Zealand wine. 

Grafton-based Invivo was flying off US shelves, selling more than 40,000 cases of sauvignon blanc in 2024 alone.  

It’s set to be on show in Times Square at an exclusive wine exhibition this week, run by Wine Spectator.  

Co-founder Tim Lightbourne told Mike Hosking that both New Zealand wine and sauvignon blanc are growing as categories in the US market. 

He said that wine as a whole is relatively flat and driven by cabernets and chardonnays, so there’s room to NZ sauvs to grow.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wine looks like it's on a tear in the States.
Let me give you some numbers in Vivo. They're about
there at another event this week in New York where
they're serving on Blanc is now turning over forty thousand
cases a year. Those sales are up one hundred and
sixty four percent. So there's some numbers in Vivo co
founded Tim Likebourn's back with us. Tim morning, Hi, Mike.
You're in New York this time Square event Wine Spectator.
Wine spectator For people who don't follow wine, that's the

(00:22):
serious business. So presumably if you're invited to that, you
know what you're doing here.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Look, it's the largest wine magazine in the world, and
you know we're honored to be invited. You had to
get a top score. They named us in the top
one hundred wines in the world, and then the writers
choose who they want to come as well.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, serving Yon Blanc. Where's the end of it? Because
we used to ask about that in Britain, where's the
end of serving on Blanc? And Britain then America came along.
In America overtook Britain in terms of sales for us,
what's the answer to the American question on serving on blanc.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's still boyant, it's still going. I was out visiting
retailers yesterday in some major you know, retail chains, and
they're still happy with it. I think, you know, we
are only three point one percent of the entire US market,
and most of that ninety five percent sevenyon blancs, So
there's there's a lot of room to grow. The big
US sort of rietyls like cabsav shardenay, they're going backwards,

(01:13):
so you know there is still room for us.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Okay, so what are you saying, so servignon blancs growing
as a as a category, or wine consumption general that
is growing as a category, or just New Zealand's growing
as a category.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So seven on blancs growing as a category. New Zealand's
going as a category. The entire wine category is as
relatively flat though, and that's driven by the two biggest varrietyls,
which is a cab seven chardonnay. What was seven on
blanc is about the sixth biggest varieties, So we've got
some room there.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I was going to say, what what's your potential do
you think for growth in that area?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Look, you know, if we can get one to two
percent market share sort of up around four or five,
which we're achieving in a few states like Florida, South
Carolina here in New York as well. Right, that's you know,
another three hundred to six hundred million for news in
on wine way.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
See, how do you do that? Because America? I mean, yes,
New York I get that. But but you know, North Carolina,
California is such a big country and to make a noise,
how do you do that?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's it is big, and there's no sort of secrets
and success. It's it's a combination of a number of things,
you know, getting those scores in the magazines, doing things
to stand out, like you know, blending or waite tasting
in the middle of the New or met Stadium here
in New York. Collaborations so we just wants to cheese
yesterday with one of the largest cheese brands here in
the US, we infused at seving on Blanc into some cheese.

(02:30):
So it's doing a whole lot of different things too.
Now get out on the road and visiting wholesalers around
the country as well.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Does the cheese taste like serving on blanc?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
It certainly does. Yeah, we had a massive launch here yesterday,
a lot of media around, so it was interesting. But yeah,
it's a sevy on Blanc bree nice.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, we're going to infuse it into apples and like
have the serving on Blanc apple and how far do
you take this one?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I mean, anything's possible. But yeah, this is an interesting one.
It's one of the largest brands in the US, this
cheese brand, So we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Fantastic good to catch up, appreciate it. But I love
New Zealanders doing well internationally. Tim Lightborne out of in
Vivo this morning are the New York connectioners of course
Syria Jessica Parker, who's a framed of the program. We
like her as well.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
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