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Wine trade prepares for 'seismic change', says Wine Vision director

Published:  17 November, 2014

Wine Vision 2014's executive director is set to kick off the global conference by telling delegates the wine trade is preparing for "seismic change" in wake of Tesco's accounting scandal.

The ShardThe ShardThe Shangri-La at The Shard will be the venue for the opening evening of Wine Vision 2014

Wine Vision 2014's executive director is set to kick off the global conference by telling delegates the wine trade is preparing for "seismic change" in wake of Tesco's accounting scandal.

Andrew Reed, executive director of the Wine Group at William-Reed Business Media, will say it is time for suppliers to grasp the initiative back from retailers and get closer to consumers.

The conference gets under way this evening with a dinner at the Shangria-La Hotel, the Shard.

The conference promises a strong line-up of speakers, including leaders of the trade as well speakers outside the industry, over the next three days.

Many are travelling from far a field including Wine Vision grant winner JD Pretorius from Steenberg Farm in South Africa.

He sees a conference like Wine Vision as a great opportunity to bring the trade leaders together to talk about how best to compete against others in the highly competitive beverage market and learn from one another.

The Shangri-La at The Shard will be the venue for the opening evening of Wine Vision 2014

"The wine world can very quickly run in its own silos, I think it is paramount to get together and learn more about that other players in the industry are doing. Ultimately we still need to work together to fight the rest of the beverage market and be better and stronger than they are," said   Pretorius.

He is also excited to see how other leading countries are positioning themselves for success in the ever changing global wine market.  

Pretorius said: "South Africa is doing well in the international wine scene, but we are nowhere near a world leader. I am very excited to see how other countries position themselves as a whole and market together. Then obviously the networking with big players in the international scene is always very exciting."

Pretorious sees some of the speakers like Jean-Guillaume Prats, president and CEO, Moët Hennessy Estates & Wines, as a huge draw for the conference as his experience particularly with luxury and premium brands will be insightful for delegates.

"Jean-Guillaume Prats, president and CEO, Moët Hennessy Estates & Wines- I think this will be very exciting, wine constantly needs to evolve and grow in order to connect with its target market and the higher you go up in terms of price point the harder this will become. I am very interested to hear what somebody with such experience in the top end game is thinking about the future," said Pretorious.

Click Wine Vision for more information and the full agenda of the conference.

The Harpers team will be reporting live from the event so please visit the website regularly as we will be posting live blogs and expect full daily news coverage.  You can also follow us on twitter at @HarpersWine.

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