Grover Zampa Vineyards (GZV), which is believed to be the second largest wine manufacturer in the country, is expecting to surpass the pre-pandemic level of sales in FY’24 backed by a steady demand from both domestic and international markets. The company, which owns wineries and vineyards at Nandi Hills in Karnataka and Nashik Valley in Maharashtra, had recorded sales close to ₹120 crore during the pre-pandemic period.

Ravi Viswanathan, Chairman, Zampa Grover Vineyards, said sales were rather muted during the last three years in the wake of the pandemic, particularly in the international markets as exports were down due to high freight rates.

“This year we might end closer to the pre pandemic levels of sales but next year we are hopeful of doing better,” Viswanathan told businessline.

The wine market in India is estimated to be nearly 30 million litres annually and Grover Zampa, which produces 4 million litres of wine, accounts for nearly 15 per cent of the total market. When it comes to wine, Indians still prefer imported wines over domestic ones though the price of domestic wine is one-third of the imported ones.

“The difficult part is not making good wines in India but to get Indians to believe that good wines can be produced in India,” he said. However, slowly things are changing and there is greater acceptance for good quality products, he added.

Exports

Grover Zampa, which boasts of the most impressive pedigree in the Indian wine industry, is also the largest exporter of winesto over 18 countries. Exports had suffered during the last three years on the back of Covid-induced lockdown across various countries and the surge in ocean freight.

“The freight rates had gone up significantly during the Covid period and this had impacted exports. However, rates have been coming down recently and we expect it to be down further in the next two-to-three months,” he said.

Exports, which accounted for 15-18 per cent of its total sales, had dropped to 10 per cent in the last two years. It, however, expects exports to pick up moving forward.

France, Japan, Germany, US, UK, Belgium and Finland are some of the key countries of export for the company.

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