Diageo Plc, the drinks maker behind such brands as Guinness and Johnnie Walker scotch whiskey has sold off more of its wine assets, this time to Grupo Penaflor, the largest wine producer and distributor in Argentina.
Diageo’s wine assets sold include Navarro Correas and San Telmo wine brands, complete with production sites and vineyards.
Diageo, the world’s largest distiller and parent company of Guinness Nigeria Plc has sold off most of its wine businesses in the United States and UK to Treasury Wine Estates, an Australian company, in a deal worth US$552 million.
The transaction involves sale of Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu and Acadia in the US and Blossom Hill, the second-biggest selling wine by value and volume in the UK.
South African wine producers are trying to cater for Nigerian’s appetite for red wine and Angolans’ thirst for sparkling wine, says Matome Mbatha of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), an industry trade body.
He made the comments on Thursday 17th September 2015, in Cape Town, South Africa.
He added that exports of mostly red wine to Nigeria have risen to 4.5 million litres a year, while exports to Angola of mostly bubbly wine has risen to 6 million litres, 5 million of which are sparkling wines, mainly J.C. Le Roux, a low cost sparkling wine that retails for about N900 ($4) in South Africa.
