Treasury Wine details China plans as Beijing reviews tariffs

The news: Top winemaker Treasury Wine Estates has outlined plans to rebuild its business in China should the country remove tariffs on Australian wine.

The numbers: The comments come after the Australian government announced on Sunday that China had agreed to review punitive tariffs on Australian wine exporters, a process that is likely to take up to five months.

The context: Treasury Wine, the owner of brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindemans, on Monday said it was “well placed” to rebuild its business in China through a series of plans that would be implemented progressively over time. These would include: continuing a focus on a multi-country of origin portfolio where it grows and makes wine for the Penfolds brand in France, the US and China; rebuilding distribution for Penfolds entry-level wine in China; and reallocating a portion of luxury Penfolds wine from other global markets to China. TWE had delayed decisions about allocations of its annual vintage of high-end Penfolds to different countries for months in the hope that Australia-China negotiations would allow it to restart trade to its largest export market before tariffs were imposed.