Four years ago, Casal became a forward operating base of a group of French coops in China. The four cellars own 51% of shares, the balance having been invested by Alain Huang, the Managing Director, who studied in the Var region.
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Le cercle des Vignerons de Provence, Marrenon, Vinovalie and Rasteau take advantage of some fifty franchised shops as a shopwindow, mainly in the coastal areas, with only one privately owned shop in Shanghai. The latter only distributes wines of the partners, some champagnes and half a dozen essential Bordeaux. The tasting room allows for the tasting of samples by importers and for some training, mainly to professionals. Leaders in sales are French red wines at 70 yuans,  VDPS of the Var and South-West and the generic red Marrenon.
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« Rasteau is more expensive and its development is slower, admits Alain Huang. 90% of sales are in red, white being more anecdotal and rosé not being adapted to the Chinese« . With champagne at 300 yuans when reaching the distributor, it remains slightly expensive to the consumer. A wine leaving a French cellar at €1 reaches the Chinese warehouse at 15 yuans, the distributor at 20 to 25 and the consumer at 70. The maximum psychological price is 150.
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Except for wines of the upper range, all carry a specific Casal label, with translation in Chinese on the back label. « The tendency is to move from table wines to generic AOC’s, and the chateaux  of Bordeaux in 4^th and 5^th crus have been rising over the last two years, explains Alain Huang. Château et Domaine on the label helps to sell but the major criteria remains price, before packaging, taste only coming after these« .
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Wines are bought at a cheaper price in Shanghai than in Peking and Casal has launched a promotional campaign with POS material, kakemonos and 20 to 30 yuans discounts on bottles. Gift boxes, in nice golden bags, represent a good share of sales, specially for the Moon Festival and the Chinese New Year, which represent a third of annual sales.
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November 2012
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