Alcohol company Ladoga will sell Porto Cruz port wine in Russia

The Ladoga alcohol company is expanding its portfolio of port wines. The company became the exclusive distributor of the Porto Cruz brand, which ranks first in sales in the world, but has not been officially present in Russia for the last two years. Experts see the possibility of replacing the share of brands that have reduced their presence in the Russian Federation, but this year imports of port wine are already recovering.

Kommersant was told by the company itself that Ladoga (Tsarskaya vodka, Barrister gin, Fowler’s whiskey, etc.) has become the exclusive distributor of Porto Cruz port wine in Russia. They noted that the brand has not been officially present in the country for the past two years. During the first year of partnership, Ladoga plans to import at least 30 thousand liters of the drink, which will allow Porto Cruz to enter the top 10 in sales in the category in the Russian Federation. The assortment of the first batch includes eight items, five more items should be added in the near future. It is planned to invest 5 million rubles in the promotion of Porto Cruz in Russia in the first year. Port wine will be sold at 1.9–12.9 thousand rubles. per bottle, depending on the type and aging, Ladoga added.

The Gran Cruz wine house that produces Porto Cruz was founded in 1887 in Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal. The brand is considered the best-selling port wine in the world. According to IWSR data available to Kommersant, in 2021 Porto Cruz accounted for 13% of global port wine sales, or 8.3 million liters. The brands Calem, Taylor’s, Cockburn’s Graham’s, Offley each took 4%. The French group La Martiniquaise, whose portfolio includes Porto Cruz, did not answer Kommersant.

Ladoga President Veniamin Grabar notes that “historically, port wine brands are companies with Anglo-Saxon roots,” which created problems for the brands in the Russian market in 2022, while French companies continue to operate in the country. According to him, sweet fortified wines are traditionally popular in Russia, and have recently become a separate trend. According to data from market participants available to Kommersant, imports of port wine into the Russian Federation in 2022 decreased by 16.79% year-on-year, to 885.7 thousand liters. Ladoga added that at the end of last year they occupied first place in the import of port wine with the Kopke and Tres Arcos brands.

The head of the WineRetail information center, Alexander Stavtsev, says that in the port wine category there is an opportunity to replace the share of brands that have reduced their presence in Russia. According to him, Porto Cruz is a well-known brand for port wine consumers, who generally have high loyalty to specific brands. Ladoga has a well-structured distribution, he adds, and the company will be able to offer competitive prices. But, warns Alexander Stavtsev, imported port wines are a narrow category, the drinks are relatively expensive, and it is difficult to achieve large sales volumes.

Simple Group says that the decline in port wine imports in 2022 could mainly be a reaction of producers to foreign policy events. The Douro and Porto Wine Institute (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto) recommended suspending supplies to the Russian Federation, which was followed by many major members of the supplier guild, the company notes. Today, Simple adds, port imports are actively recovering due to more independent manufacturers, as well as lesser-known brands entering the market. Based on the results of three quarters of 2023, importers actually imported the entire volume of 2022, noted a Simple representative.

Evgeny Shcherbakov, head of wine brands at Luding Group, says that there is now a slight drop in demand for port wines, mainly due to increased import duties on wines from the EU, as well as rising prices due to changes in the exchange rate. “Despite this, we are negotiating and developing not only the port category, but also wines from other regions of Portugal,” says the top manager.

Simple reported that they have not yet resumed imports of the port portfolio and, in the current situation, have relied on the development of Spanish sherries, sales of which have more than tripled in the three quarters of this year. The company added that they plan to further expand the portfolio of fortified wines. According to Rosalkogoltabakcontrol, retail sales of all fortified wines in January-September 2023 increased by 75%, to 881.2 thousand decaliters year-on-year.

Anatoly Kostyrev