In this episode we chat to Shaun Gatonby, managing director of Spar Engage, sales and merchandising agents for the Spar private label business. Before starting Spar Engage, Shaun worked for the Imana Foods' owned sales and merchandising company, Process Sales.

Shaun takes time to explain the intricacies of the Spar private label business which was started by Bruce Hughes and the team at Monteagle and is now called Spar Encore. Spar Encore looks after the supply chain of the Spar private label products for the retailers.

Spar Engage has three divisions, they have a team that looks after retailers, a team that looks after Tops and the newest division, Fresh, which will look after butchery, bakery, produce, food solutions and deli.

As promised Charles Withington is back and this time we are talking about Cape Brandy. After a 5 year effort by the Cape Brandy Distillers Guild, The term “Cape Brandy” may now be applied to labelling as the official descriptor.

To be classified as a Cape Brandy, a brandy must be:

For more information about Cape Brandy visit http://capebrandy.org/ and here is a link to Charles Withington's Voorkamer brandy: https://www.withington.co.za/voorkamer-brandy/

You may also be interested in listening to the previous interview with Charles Withington which you will find here: https://www.drinksworld.co.za/charles-withington-the-darling-wine-shop/

Thank you for listening to our stories here online. Here is a link were you can subscribe to become part of our community and be notified when we upload our latest content: https://link.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=69086c59fd049a42d2f1cf55a&id=835035b7a6

Peter de Villiers landed his first job at Gilbeys, the local arm of one of the worlds leading liquor company's, International Distillers & Vintners. He first worked in the stats department and later got his dream job managing brands like Coco Rico or Malibu as it is known today.

Peter has many years experience running his own liquor company and in this interview he shares many valuable lessons with us.

Peter pioneered the popular MOJO Jam Jar and has developed other popular brands like Black Widow Vodka and Vamanos.

You can connect with the Peter and the MOJO team on social media at https://www.facebook.com/MOJOrsa

Thank you for listening to our stories here online. Here is a link were you can subscribe to become part of our community and be notified when we upload our latest content: https://link.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=69086c59fd049a42d2f1cf55a&id=835035b7a6

Welcome to a new episode of DrinksWorld, where we celebrate and connect entrepreneurs in the beverage industry in South Africa.

Rob Heyns is back for this episode. It is always fun to chat to Rob because his approach to business so different, he sees opportunities that no one else sees and then come up with really amazing concepts and products.

Rob, together with Nzeka Biyela, launched the League of Beers way back in 2012 with the goal of getting South Africa drinking better beer. Fast forward many years and thousands of beers later, and they’ve joined forces yet again (along with a few mates) to take a delicious dive into the best spirits the country has to offer. Visit the new site at https://thebeverageclub.co.za/

With their experience the team has become the go to Direct-to-consumer, Gifting and Curation consultants for local and international clients.

Links:

With all the challenges of 2020 and 2021 we talk to a number of beer importers in South Africa to find out what beers are available to the trade.

One of my contacts who is active on the continent says there is a massive shortage of cans, the price of barley is up 30% and shipping is up 90%. How do importers deal with that scenario. Some, certainly have already stopped importing... Join me as we chat to our community members.

Flare Beverages imports Erdinger, Paulaner, Bitburger and Royal Dutch. The trade can contact them on 021 905 8163 or [email protected]

Belgsa Trading imports La Trappe, Palm, Rodenbach, Cornet and local belgian ale De Poes. [email protected]

Beverage People imports the iconic Pilsner Urquell, the Fuller's range as well as BrewDog. They have just launched the local Sxollie Cider in a can. The Fullers and Brew Dog range are no longer available. [email protected]

The Belgian Beer Company imports Duvel, Maredsous, Liefmans, La Chouffe, De Koninck, Kwak, Tripel Karmeliet, Vedett and they have just launched the Liefmans Fruitesse 0.0 Alcohol Free. The trade can contact them on 021 552 8656 or [email protected]

Nicholson Smith imports the and Union range from Germany. The trade can contact them on 011 496 2947 or [email protected]

Global Beer Merchants imports the original Hofbräu München beers. Contact 082 061 7843 [email protected]

Beverage Emporium imports Super Bock. 087 057 5450 or [email protected]

The Cape Brewing Co imports a Pale Ale in a can as well as their Rekorderlig Cider from Sweden. The trade can contact them 021 863 2270 or on [email protected]

Singha is available, but it is imported by a Thai restaurant chain for their own outlets.

Gerstel and Eichbaum are currently out of stock The Faxe range as well as Carlsberg from Denmark is no longer imported

In Heineken's most significant acquisition since 2018, the worlds second largest brewer offers to buy South African Distell and Namibian Breweries.

Charles Witingthon, the curator of the "Darling Brand" talks to us about his career with some of the top estates in the South African wine industry, about his experiences introducing South African wines to the export markets and about Darling where he now owns the popular Darling Wine Shop.

A Podcast with Holger Meier

Hylton Smith was part of the team that first introduced Windhoek beers to the Botswana market, he then moved to Durban and joined Ian and Peter Hoyer at Team Liquor Distributors to head up sales of Windhoek beers. Hylton recalls only selling a truckload of Windhoek in their first year, but only a short four years later they sold an interlink of Windhoek beers per day during the peak season.

Then in 2004, thinking that they were well on their way to becoming a real player in the liquor industry, Namibian Breweries announced the formation of Brandhouse, a joint venture with Heineken and Diageo.

Hylton opted not to become part of the new corporation and joined former Windhoek colleagues Andre Homann and Craig MacKenzie in selling Bavaria beers.

Andre Homann and a few former Windhoek guys then made an offer to purchase NMK Schulz from Norbert Schulz. NMK had the agency for Stella Artois, a brand which the beer guys hoped they could grow into a significant player in the local market.

Hylton, now a shareholder, continued working at Team Liquor Distributors.

When Ray Edwards started Tops at Spar the market started to change and in order to survive, distributors had to be able to service national chain stores.

In 2016 Hylton took on new financial partners, with funds to open branches nationally they could now service national chains such as Pick n Pay.

In 2018 Hylton was approached by Super Bock to distribute their beer in South Africa. At the time Super Bock was only available at the Liquor City stores. The brand was on a good growth trajectory, claiming to sell 15000 containers a year in Angola at the time.

Super Bock is the leading beer brand in Portugal with a market share of more than 50% The Super Bock Group is a privately held company founded in 1890 based in Porto, Portugal.

Hylton continues by sharing some interesting stories about his travels to Porto, their strategy with the brand and his journey so far. Well worth a listen!

A Podcast with Holger Meier

Today’s Guest is Jason Neal, owner of the Gauteng-based drinks distributor, Nicholson Smith, and creator of award-winning brands like Pandora’s Box wine range. Jason “grew” up in the liquor industry following in his father’s footsteps, who was Mr Ballantines Whiskey at Hiram Walker and later successfully start exporting SAB beers during the Meyer Kahn era.

Jason started working at The Cellars of Hyde Park when he was only 16 years old, Jason started working at The Cellars of Hyde Park when he was only 16 years old, thereafter he cut his entrepreneurial teeth with a Sorghum Breweries in Diepsloot.

After selling the brewery, Jason joined Boetie Rietoff at Somerset Wines and then he helped Italian billionaire, Count Riccardo Agusta, owner of Grand Provance, launch La Vie De Luc Mineral Water which is now the No 1 on consumption water in South Africa.

Nicholson Smith was started in 1997 to import Bowman’s whisky from the USA. Jason joined the company in 2005. After buying out the founding partners, Jason has been operating the business on his own since 2009. Nicholson Smith is now a complete drinks business, selling what the market demands.

https://www.nicholsonsmith.co.za/

Jason Neal is also the creator of the very successful Pandora’s Box wine range with the help of James Mckenzie, owner at Nabygelegen Private Cellar.

https://www.nicholsonsmith.co.za/wines/itemlist/category/51-pandora-s-box

In 2016 Reinhardt Paulsen discovered gin and his restaurant, Carbon Bistro, soon became the top gin bar in the Capital. After exiting the bistro, Reinhardt started TheGinGuy.co.za an online gin and speciality spirits site, which lists about 180 gins. The most exciting recent addition is Procera gin which is made by Roger Jorgenson in Kenya.

Reinhardt not only supplies gin fanatics, but he also offers a delivery service to other liquor retailers.

In this episode, we learn more about Reinhardt's latest project, TheGinGuy.com. With this new site, he will be able to ship South African gins all over the world.

We reconnect with Simone Musgrave, innovative craft gin pioneer, at the recent launch of the Jasmine Jagger limited edition Musgrave 11 event at Hillcrest Tops. In this episode Simone shares how this colab came about and how she is reviving her brand which like most premium products has been badly affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Links: Find a link to our previous interview here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5AcXeHKeABqq6695siQdtqhttps://musgravespirits.comhttps://jasminejagger.comHillcrest Tops