THE SWEDISH, FINNISH AND NORWEGIAN MARKET FOR CIDER
The Cider consumption in the Nordic markets is relatively low compared to the consumption of wine and beer. Many of the big players is Nordic Cider companies when it comes to the volume products, but what we currently see in the market is a higher demand for premium products and niche products. Our believe is that the cider market will experience the same development as the Nordic beer market, where the consumer starts to drink much more medium and high prices products, rather than only the mainstream products, normally competing with a very affordable price. Furthermore we see a strong trend, where our clients (Systembolaget, Vinmonopolet and ALKO) continuously search for organic and sustainable certified products. We believe it will be a high % of request for such cider products in coming years.
THE MONOPOLY TENDER PROCESS FOR CIDER
As you probably are aware about, we have a monopoly situation when it comes to distribution of alcoholic beverages. All distribution towards the end-consumer directly goes via one of the monopoly organizations. In Sweden the name of the monopoly distributor is Systembolaget, where Norwegians monopoly is called Vinmonopolet and the Finnish institution is called ALKO. More or less all purchases go via licensed importers (as Concealed Wines) and 90% of the products are purchases via a tender system where end decision is taken during a blind tasting. In order to have a good chance to get in to the market is make sense to work with a serious importer, with good knowledge how the system works, and how to work in an efficient manner in order to convince the clients to purchase certain cider products.
CONCEALED WINES PRO-ACTIVE WORK WITH PRODUCT SEGMENT CIDER
Concealed Wines is an established licensed importer active in Sweden, Finland and Norway. About 90% of our sales goes to three clients; Systembolaget, Vinmonopolet and ALKO. The main reason why we see a very good growth in our business is because a very good relationship with our main clients, and also a good success getting new products in the market and to establish these products in order to stay long-term in the market. The recipe of this is a strong network on the supplier side. We think it is very crucial to work in close relationship with our suppliers in order to work pro-active and make offers to the clients. Rather than to see our markets as a lottery (due to the objective tender process) we believe that it makes sense to understand the differences working and doing all details 110%. According to us, that is how you conquer our market! We recently entered the cider segment and we currently start to bring our supplier network. We are very keen to get in touch with new actors eager to sell wines in the Nordic cider markets.
If you are interested in our markets and better understand how Systembolaget, Vinmonopolet and ALKO purchase cider, please contact Calle Nilsson at calle.nilsson@concealedwines.com for more information.