How Nimbility can be a drinks brand’s passport to China & Asia
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Selling wines and spirits in China and across Asia is not the great unknown as it was say 10 to 15 years ago when few brands had any idea where their products were being sold. But China and Asia are still highly complex markets with each country, region, state and city needing specialist help to make sure your drinks have a realistic chance of success. Which is the exact role that Nimbility claims to offer, with expert help on the ground and insiders’ knowledge of how to make the most of the opportunity for your brands in these still emerging markets. Richard Siddle talks to two of Nimbility’s three founding directors, Francesca Martin and Polly Aylwin-Foster, to find out exactly how it works.
Maison Mirabeau, Viña Casa Silva, Journey’s End, Rathfinny Estate, Brooklyn Gin, Capel Pisco, Wines of Chile and New Zealand Winegrowers are just an example of the range of clients that Nimbility works with to best represent their products and services across China and Asia.
Whenever I get to write about the huge opportunities that exist for drinks brands in China, and across the main Asian markets, my mind always goes back to the inaugural Wine Vision event held in London in November 2013 which attracted the great and good from the world of wine.
Amongst all the meaty talks and panel debates that took place over the breakthrough conference, one moment still stands out. The time when Cristián López, Concha y Toro’s export director and key figure in Asia, asked the delegates who sold wine in China to put their hands up. The majority of the room did. He then asked those with their hands up if any could also stand up and explain exactly where their wines were being sold in China. Every single hand went down.
If he asked the same question today, then there may be a few more hands that stay up, but not as many as you might think considering how many major brands, wineries and producers are operating there.
It is exactly that knowledge that the three founding partners behind Nimbility hope to help fill by offering on the ground expertise from individuals that between them have over 50 years experience working with drinks brands across Asia, most notably China.
They include:
Ian Ford, one of the leading local experts who has been living and working in China since 1995. He co-founded Summergate in 1999, a company that has gone on to become one of China’s biggest and most influential wine and spirits import and distribution businesses, which he sold to Woolworths in Australia in 2014, before helping to set up Nimbility.
Francesca Martin has helped a number of leading brands find their feet in key Asian markets
Francesca Martin, whose journey to Asia has come via a number of leading wine brands and producers including Jacques & Francois Lurton in Argentina, Miguel Torres in Spain, Liberty Wines in the UK and ASC Fine Wines in Hong Kong. She set up BEE Drinks Global drinks marketing agency in Hong Kong in 2013, before helping to start Nimbility in 2017.
Polly Aylwin-Foster, who came to wine via retail start-ups and has been living in Hong Kong since 2011, first with local wine importer North East Wines & Spirits and then as commercial director with Pont des Arts.
“The bonus of living and working in Asia cannot be overstated,” says Aylwin-Foster. It is one of the rare drinks consultancy businesses, for example, that can offer a five-strong team in Shanghai. “It is a huge advantage to have a team on the ground,” she adds.
Brand building
Martin says the idea for Nimbility came about as all three could see a “see a disconnect” between the traditional role of a local importer as essentially being an extended sales arm of a drinks producer and the work that was being missed out on actually building brands in these markets.
“There was the space to provide additional brand building strategy and activation. To make the right connections and create real partnerships for brands in these markets,” explains Martin.
All elements of a market strategy – route-to-market, distribution and brand building – are intertwined into what Nimbility distills down to market building. The initial step is always to establish the right route to market for any particular brand, she adds, nothing meaningful can happen until this is in place. The correct distribution strategy to be executed downstream. Then it’s time to look at what can be done to help build that brand not only to the trade but also to the target consumers.
“Insight and intelligence informs what that route to market and brand strategy should be,” says Martin, which is why Nimbility looks to get hold of as much hard data as it can to help determine the strategies it suggests brands should follow.
Some of its work, she adds, is simply on brand building and “how they build a brand in a particular market”. “But for 90% of our clients we act as their local export department, working with the importer and buyers and putting brand development ideas into place,” she explains.
Aylwin-Foster adds: “We are trying to help brands navigate the unique challenges of the various markets out here. Every producer will know of someone who has been able to sell 10 containers here, but they don’t know where they’re sold, at what price, to whom, how much inventory is left… the list goes on.”
In it for the long term
Polly Aylwin-Foster says success in Asia has be to hard earned – over a number of years
To succeed in Asia you have to be patient and be prepared to wait it out – for years at a time, stresses Aylwin-Foster.
“We have some clients who think Asia is the golden goose. But they have to realise it is minimum 10-year commitment. That is roughly the time it takes to establish a genuine brand franchise and market. We are looking to find long term strategic partners to work with who realise it takes time. Part of our role is to manage their expectations and map out the path to their long term goal.”
It’s not just for China, but right across Asia. “They have to understand that any vision for Asia has to be part of their global strategy for the next five to 10 years. It takes time and patience to find the right partners.”
Which is why Nimbility tends to keep clear of “the big corporate brands” that might be unrealistically looking to double their sales effectively overnight and please their impatient shareholders. “We don’t offer that. We are looking for long-term brand building partners,” says Aylwin-Foster.
She says it can take some time for producers to understand and appreciate the big lag times there are between presenting wines and ideas and anything being agreed on. “But the real picture is more dynamic than it might look,” she adds.
Martin agrees: “You can’t build a brand in Asia in a year. It takes nearer 10 to 15 years. To succeed you must be willing to invest ahead of your sales. Brands in China that have achieved bedrock success have almost all followed a similar trajectory and timeframe, e.g. Penfolds, Casillero del Diablo, Villa Maria, Lafite.”
She adds: “Producers also need to live in the here and now though, so we are always in a balancing act between near term results and the long term goal of sustainable and profitable markets across Asia.”
Insider knowledge
Nimbility is also well placed to work with the major importers and distributors. Not least because its founders have worked for them and in Ford’s case, helped set them up.
“We all come from a background of working with top importers,” says Martin and whilst they are very good at what they do, they also have very big portfolios and complex operations. They tend to appreciate the expertise and support that Nimbility can offer them on specific brands and strategies, to augment their own brand building efforts.
Aylwin-Foster explains: “Nimbility provides that extra service to really build your brand in key markets. To do that you need boots on the ground, to understand how that market really works. We work with the bigger importers who have their own teams and we can act as an accelerator for them. Brainstorming ideas and amplifying what they are doing. We are an additional support for them.”
That’s clearly how their most productive relationships have worked best.
Ian Ford helps lead a masterclass in Shanghai with one of its clients – the Greek wine producer Tselepos
“We want them to see us as an extension of their team. That’s really important to us. We are their partners for Asia and need to be bought into their fold,” she adds.
Matin says this is particularly important in areas such as brand registration and intellectual property. In Indonesia, for example, it can take up to two years just to register a drinks brand to sell it in the country.
“Trademarking and registering brands are hugely important issues. If you don’t get it right from the beginning, it can really hamper your progress,” says Martin.
Like how you name your brand and making sure you have a name that works in English and Chinese. “We work a lot with our clients on that,” says Martin.
Nimbility is now in a position where those major importers are coming to them to ask which brands they are working with and how they can work together to drive sales and visibility.
“Importers will focus a lot more on trade marketing and we can offer the additional support on how to build visibility and reputation,” adds Martin. “As we represent the brand, we can work the angle of building that genuine consumer demand which is a key component to sustainable brand building within a market.”
On the ground
Which is why it is so important to be on the ground, listening, talking and seeing for yourself what is happening, stresses Martin.
“It is very difficult to get hold of hold of reliable consumer data in Asia. It does not really exist in markets like China, for example. It is such a vast country and so fragmented. Every city really is so different. If anything we err on the side of caution and prefer to talk directly to consumers who are consuming the product.”
She says there is also a lot to learn from other brands that are doing well in China, particularly in the luxury consumer goods sectors and what they are doing in the digital arena in particular. “It is so expensive to get right and it is interesting to learn and watch what they are doing,” she adds.
It is actually more pragmatic and realistic to take a longer-term view when assessing the Chinese market, believes Martin. Looking at what is likely to happen over a five to ten year period.
That’s where a lot of its consultancy work comes in and offering strategic thinking to wine generics and major brands, be it Wines of Chile or Viña Casa Silva.
Its range of clients is, therefore, quite varied, from craft producers up to Super Tuscan heavyweights.
New opportunities
Being on the ground to be able to host events and brand launches is a key part of what Nimbility does
The fallout from the huge tariffs placed on Australian wine in June 2021 is still being felt not just in China, but across Asia, says Aylwin-Foster. What is clearly Australia’s loss is other countries gain and the Chinese market has opened up for other major wine producing countries, most noticeably France, South Africa, Argentina and Chile. Georgian wine imports have also risen sharply.
“The gatekeepers in China are looking for new wines and people to work with,” she says. “The Australia tariffs have really opened up the market.”
It’s also a good time to be introducing new products and ideas. Although cans are still in their very early days in China, there is definitely a growing market for them.
Nimbililty, for example, has had some good early success with Provence producer Maison Mirabeau, for both its canned wine range in China and its new premium Rosé gin. “They are very good at brand building, very innovative and great to work with,” says Aylwin-Foster. “The gin is a great addition to our portfolio.”
Next steps
For all its success and contacts, Nimbility is still a relatively young company, admits Martin.
Other than the three founders Nimbility now has up to 12 full-time members of staff. It is looking, in particular, at how it can build up its digital expertise that is most effective and relevant for its clients. “Everyone needs a digital presence here, but how you achieve that so you are also getting the right rate of return for your investment, is often something brands grapple with”, says Martin. “We are working on new ways in which we can add an affordable digital presence in a market like China to our service.”
It is also looking at ways it can collect and offer its customers more meaningful data and intelligence relevant for their brands. Particularly around more focused research on wine lists and what is selling in particular types of venue.
We talk a lot about relationships in the wine and drinks industry, but in China and Asia they are arguably more important than the actual products you are trying to sell.
That’s Nimbility’s biggest calling card, says Martin: “We have a very strong team who have been working in Asia for decades and building up those all important personal relationships.”