Date£º
2017-09-29 09:18 Source£º
https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com Author:
Natalie Wang Translator:
China¡¯s state-owned conglomerate COFCO has announced a major personnel reshuffle, appointing Castle Li, general manager of its thriving importing arm division ¨C COFCO Wine & Wine ¨C as the new general manager for one of the country¡¯s biggest domestic wineries, Great Wall, ending a more than two-month long public search.
According to a Chinese media report, Li will remain as general manager for COFCO Wine & Wine.
The appointment of Li seems to be an effort by COFCO to reboot Great Wall, which has suffered an 8% sales drop in the first half of the year, while its wine importing business overseen by Li, has been registering double-digit or even three-digit growth since its launch in 2014.
In 2016, Great Wall¡¯s sales declined by 9% as Chinese consumers¡¯ demand for domestic wines waned. Meanwhile, strong demand for imported wines has pushed up sales for COFCO¡¯s imported wine business by 147% to RMB 400 million (US$58.9 million).
Li, a graduate of Peking University, joined COFCO in 2007. In 2014, he was appointed as general manager of COFCO Wine & Wine, at that time, a fledgling business for the group.
But within three years, COFCO Wine & Wine has grown to be a leading wine importer in the country. It claims to have imported six million litres of wine in 2016, which would put it on a par with ASC Fine Wines, the country¡¯s biggest wine importer by volume.
The Great Wall winery, founded in 1983 by COFCO, is capable of producing about 50,000 tonnes of wines annually. It¡¯s estimated to make up roughly 20% of wine sales in China.
(https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/09/cofcos-imported-wine-boss-to-head-great-wall/)