BRL Hardy: Globalizing an Australian Wine Company Research

Wine Industry
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BRL Hardy
The wine industry has seen some massive growth along with some significant turbulence. In the Australian market, the development started back in the late 18th century with a group of settlers and convicts within the new British colony. With the gold rush experienced in the mid nineteenth century, the industry gained massive traction as waves of European settlers came in and provided a ready market for the wine industry to rely on (State Government of Victoria, 2016). With a ready market, the industry underwent great transformation with vineyards sprouting across the country for the production of fortified wine and a number of table wines (Bartlett & Beamish, 2011). The wine intake per capita increased. While more than a thousand refineries came up during the revolution that took place in the industry, there were some uniquely competitive companies that topped the tables. One of the companies at the time was BRL Hardy Ltd. The company sold their products using a number of labels among them; Leasingham, Houghton and Hardy. Other than within the local markets, the company also made headways in the international markets. They were able to supply quite a number of markets among them the United States, Japan and Germany. Using some quite a number of strategies to win the international markets, the company made some significant inroads in the UK. They sold bottled wines much of which was high value (Bartlett & Beamish, 2011). They also acquired the right from a major distributor Whiclar and Gordon from the UK. This enhanced their ability to better target their products to the customers. Ideally, with a single distributor, they did not have to use other distributors that had dozens of other wines from competing companies across the globe. After a brief success from the venture, they then experienced some significant challenges from the recession that followed. With the financial huddles that came with it, the company had to rethink its strategies and thus made the decision to form a joint venture with BRL.
In light of Kelly and Banrock, there are quite a number of aspects that have to be considered. These were competing products from the company that could easily mean the success of the company or its downfall. Whenever a company has more than one product, it is always crucial that the management decide what product they may want to work with if they are going to penetrate a given market (Bartlett & Beamish, 2011). In this the company had Kelly’s Revenge which was meant to be introduced in the UK market and at the same they had Banrock Station, which was a brand meant for the Australian market. More importantly was the fact that the Banrock Station was actually doing well and was set to be introduced globally to leverage the success that it had locally. This is a crucial split in the decision to be made relative to the product to roll out (Bartlett & Beamish, 2011).
It is important to consider that Kelly, had been poised for a UK market, which was now emerging and the company needed to present a product that represented the market. Given that the market in the UK had different characteristics that than found in the local market, there was need to consider the element of uniqueness. This is an assumption that is derived from the element that, much of what may work in the local market may not work in a foreign market. Different markets tend to have different characteristics and this will influence the kind of products that they are going to work with. The brand was targeted at the younger generation, with a theme that was aligned with fun. As such even the labeling of the brand had to take on a colorful approach to make sure that it was appealing to the target customers in the UK.
On the other hand, there is the Banrock, a brand that had been targeted at the Australian market. The company launched the product locally and managed to develop a rather successful trend with it. From the level of success that the brand generated a...