South Africa’s wine industry is increasingly leaning on digital technologies for survival after the sector was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to local wine makers, the sector, which usually contributes R36 billion annually to the GDP, acutely felt the coronavirus impact, reporting R7.5 billion in losses, with over 21 000 jobs lost so far.
Before the pandemic gripped the world, the wine sector employed close to 300 000 people, according to South African Wine Industry Information Systems, and is now leveraging new technologies to halt further decline and job losses.
Hein Koegelenberg, CEO of Franschhoek-based and Rupert family-owned wine estate La Motte, says for the sector’s own survival, and to spark economic recovery, wine producers had to rethink and adopt new ways of doing business to circumvent challenges presented by the pandemic.
“During a year in which we reflected quite a bit as the pandemic also coincided with the 50-year anniversary of our current business and ownership of La Motte, we took note of an increased consumer acceptance and appetite for a digital connection to wine products and experiences they love. This digital connection has successfully spilled over into the online retail
space as orders picked up significantly,” says Koegelenberg.
“We have explored virtual versions of our wine tourism experiences and realised it is the interaction and personalisation of a visit to La Motte that makes all the difference. It is important to us that our virtual experiences such as the wine tastings, art museum experiences, and historic and sculpture walks in the estate’s beautiful gardens, mirror our approach to personalisation and stay interactive. During a time when our supporters can’t come to us, we now take the experience to them, virtually.”
This week, Koegelenberg, together with Microsoft, hosted a virtual wine tasting with SA’s top personalities in the technology
space.
“Digital technology is one way in which organisations are able to adapt and thrive, to respond to and recover from challenges and to reimagine ways of working. Focusing on building digital resilience will help businesses stay relevant, regain competitiveness and drive economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic,” says Amr Kamel, enterprise director at Microsoft South Africa.
“Businesses across industries, not just in the wine industry, have never experienced this scale of impact, meaning industries have no choice but to adapt and transform their businesses to ensure business continuity and success. We are encouraged to see many South African organisations ready to reimagine how they do business in a more digital-transformed and resilient way.”
Koegelenberg says wine producers will continue to find creative ways to use digital technologies to become more resilient, reduce costs, and increase efficiency and productivity.
“2020 presented an opportunity for us to revisit marketing approaches, channels and customer experiences. By virtue of virtual technology, we are still able to connect to loyal supporters while it also affords us the opportunity to reach new customers in fresh new ways.”
