By Aad van der Werf

Symington Family Estates (SFE) will invest five million euros until 2012 in the renewal of the vineyards and wineries of Cockburn, acquired recently from North-American Beam Global, according a spokesman of the company to Portuguese agency Lusa.
Joint Managing Director Rupert Symington informed that the Cockburn business added around 17 million euros to SFE sales. One estimates that consolidated sales of 2006 for SFE will be around 85 million euros, compared to 70 million in 2005.

More important, the manager emphasized, is the increase of market share of 5 percentage points to 22% of port business, as a consequence of the acquisition of the Cockburn properties by Symington Family Estates.

“Although we are not the biggest in terms of volume, we definitely are now the largest producer of superior quality wines,” Rupert Symington mentioned. He added that the company currently controls 36% of the special categories of Port wine. “Our know-how is wines of high quality and not volume of medium quality,” he concluded.

According Rupert Symington, Cockburn had four wineries in need of ‘huge investment’ that now will be remodeled to the existing level within SFE, although ‘this is not the most appropriate moment to invest’, bearing in mind that the price of steel doubled this year. Cockburn was founded in 1815 and maintained a good image during the entire 20th century. During recent years however, ‘there was a lack of investment’ and with the total integration within SFE early this year, the next phase of remodeling and modernizing the properties became ‘inevitable’.

“My family is heavily investing in research of new technologies, because we find that important, specifically through the introduction of robotic lagares. Those machines imitate the traditional treading of the grapes, with the added advantage of temperature control and hygiene,” Rupert Symington told Lusa.

SFE bought the properties of Cockburn from Beam Global in the course of last year, after Beam Global had decided to keep the brand and to transfer production to a supplier of high quality wines.

“We have been chosen because our brands are well established in key markets, the USA and England in particular, because we have a long term quality vision and have control over the entire process from grape to bottle.” Without disclosing the final value of the deal, the Joint Managing Director nevertheless mentioned that this acquisition represents approximately a stock of 30.000 ‘pipas’, around one third of the Symington stock.

Beam continues to manage the commercial strategy, marketing, sales and distribution of the brands, with SFE now as the supplier at predefined prices for a period of 20 years or more. “We have a price of supply of wine in bottle,” Rupert Symington explained.

With this acquisition the Portuguese Port wine company doubles its vineyard property, now at three million vines and 950 hectares of terrain with grade A (superior category) vineyards. The grapes will be used for the Cockburn brand, but also for own Symington brands, like Graham’s and Dow’s.

Seven Symingtons work in the family business, six from the 13th generation in the Port trade.

Aad van der Werf

Source: Diário Digital/Lusa