Italy’s Pasqua Sees U.S. Growth Ramp Up, As Volume Nears 250,000 Cases
April 6, 2015Verona-based wine producer Pasqua has centered its focus on the U.S. market recently and is seeing strong growth across its portfolio. The company, which produces about 1.5 million cases annually, exports roughly 85% of its production, with the U.S. as its top export market, followed by Canada. When Pasqua set up its own U.S. subsidiary in 2010, the group sold about 50,000 cases in the States. Last year it reached 240,000 cases, and shipments have doubled thus far in 2015, after a particularly strong holiday season.
The Pasqua portfolio includes its name brand, as well as other labels including the higher-end Famiglia Pasqua and Cecilia Beretta. While Pasqua’s range includes a host of styles—including Amarone, Prosecco, Soave, Moscato, Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese and others—growth has lately been driven by the Pasqua brand’s Passimento red blend ($15-$20 a 750-ml.), which debuted in 2011 and has taken off since a packaging change early last year. The new label features an image of Juliet’s wall in Verona, where up to 3,000 love messages are scrawled each day, and has provided a more compelling story for the brand, according to Riccardo Pasqua, the company’s vice president, Americas.
Another recent initiative is 3-liter bag-in-box packaging for Pasqua Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese ($20 a 3-liter). “Our first customer for the bag-in-box was Meier’s in the Midwest, and now everybody wants it,” Pasqua says, noting that the company packages the wines in Italy, contrasting with many other imported bag-in-box brands, which are shipped in bulk and packaged in the U.S.
“The U.S. market is our top priority, and we’re really only just beginning,” says Pasqua, noting that while the wines have had placements in key retailers like Costco, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods among others, “we don’t do a lot of chain business yet.” Further expansion into that area represents a major opportunity, he asserts. Meanwhile, as Pasqua lasers its focus on U.S. growth, capacity constraints won’t be an issue—after moving into a new winery in San Felice in 2007, the group has the means to double production from its current base.
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