Argentina wine consumers 'attractive' to retailers

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 09 April, 2014

Argentinian wine consumers are younger, more engaged, and spend more than those from other countries - making them more attractive to retailers, argues Andrew Maidment of Wines of Argentina.

The generic body has recently carried out research with Kantar Worldpanel, profiling the average Argentinian wine buying consumer, which shows that 26% of Argentinian wine consumers are men, aged between 25 and 49, versus 17% of total wine sales. Add to that that 18% are aged between 25 and 35, compared to just 9% for Spain, for example, as well as being drawn from the top end of the demographic scale with 70% being ABC1, and these consumers look attractive, Maidment, the European and Asian head of WoA, told harpers.co.uk. The country is also performing strongly in the off-trade.

"Our shoppers visit the wine category more than [those from] any other country. They're very engaged. Maybe because Argentina is a bit more niche, they have a bit more wine knowledge. They're good to have in store. They spend £2 more per visit than the average Californian shopper.

"If you're a retailer, you're thinking, I want more of these people in store."

Maidment believes that to capitalise on its younger consumers, Argentina need to focus more on working with online retailers, as its shopper profiles closely match those of most online shoppers.

"We should probably initially focus online. We haven't taken advantage of that enough yet."

The convenience sector is also a major opportunity for Argentinian producers, as 40% more of its customers in the convenience sector are under 35, compared to the rest of the wine category. Argentina is not strong in convenience stores with only 7% of its sales taking place there. "We need to work on the retailers, so that they know how our customer matches up," Maidment said.

For more on this story, read our Q&A with Andrew Maidment.

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