WineRo invests EUR 2.5 million on the Romanian market and prepares for wine tourism

It’s easy to make money from wine, say the French with irony, but only after you spend 50 years making good wine, because that is when one should start expecting profit. Ghenadie Bobeica, shareholder at WineRo, the company behind the creation of a new Romanian wine, Alira, sees the recovery of the initial EUR 2.5 million investment (solely in the vineyard) taking place after around the same amount of time, in this case, too.

“However, from a more optimistic perspective, profitability will arrive seven years later”, explains Bobeica. The markets that the new brand will target, besides Romania, will be the same as EniRa, the Bulgarian wine that WineRo distributes in Romania (as they are part of the same group, Bessa Valley). Thus, 80 percent of production will be directed at the local market and 20 percent abroad, to France, Luxemburg, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, the last one being one of the markets for the wine manufacturer.

The new brand of Romanian wine will be launched starting November 2009, with the retail price of around RON 40 – RON 42. This year’s limited production of 45,000 bottles will also be available in the HoReCa chain. “After the launch, we will now have a product in the superpremium segment on the market, through its quality, but for a price typical of the starter premium products”, explains oenologist Marc Dworkin about the Merlot wine that he created.

Bobeica wants to take the wine investment further, by extending to tourism, an opportunity not too well seized in the Aliman area. “We want to transform the wine cellar, which will be finalized by September 2011, into a touristic objective. The wine cellar will be located at Rasova, 12 kilometers from the Bucharest – Constanta highway. Apart from this, we will also develop an accommodation project, as we want to turn the Cernavoda – Ion Corvin (e.n., both part of Constanta county) area in a landmark. There have been similar previous efforts, but ours will be the first one to be carried out fully”, adds Bobeica.

WineRo company was founded in 2006 by Dr. Karl-Heinz Hauptmann (co-founder of ECM in Czech Republic and former manager of Merrill Lynch London) and has its headquarters in Bucharest. The foundations for the first Romanian vineyard, with a total area of 80 hectares, were set in Aliman, in Constanta county. The total value of the project is of EUR 4.7 million, of which EUR 2 million constitute a non-reimbursable financing, and EUR 2.7 million represent co-financing for the wine cellar’s construction.