Campari Group CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz on new e-commerce JV with Moët Hennessy

Last month, Campari Group announced the formation of a joint venture (JV) with Moët Hennessy to create a high-end wines & spirits European e-commerce platform under Campari’s existing Tannico store. Just Drinks caught up with CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz to hear more about the new project.

Bob Kunze-Concewitz: We have essentially invested our stakes in [e-commerce platforms] Tannico and [French e-tailer] Ventealapropriete.com. These are two strong players in very large markets, France and Italy. Our plan is to leverage the platform.

Obviously, it is all arm’s length. Tannico is a standalone company with its own management and systems and processes. Over time, with the support of our joint venture, they will look at creating a pan-European platform offering high-end premium wines and spirits online.

I don’t think it has anything to do with it. It has to do with the experience we’ve had with Tannico [which Campari bought last year], getting to know the management and having quite a bit of trust in them. We believe that Tannico, with its current management and with our financial support, has the right cocktail to build this platform over time.

It’s very difficult to say at this stage because different markets are at different levels of maturity. To one extent, you have the UK where 10% of our sales come from e-commerce. At the other end of the scale, you have other European markets. Take Germany, for example, where we’re probably below 1% of our sales. This is something that will develop over time but clearly, we’re taking the omnichannel approach to our business.

Tannico will be unchanged and open to all industry players. We’re not going to have any privileged access to the network. That’s a very important message I’d like to underline to the other players in the industry.

They carry a vast array of brands, many from our competitors, and they will continue to do so. Consumers need to have choice.

This is an interesting business that’s growing and I think we can learn quite a bit.

It’s a company we really admire. We have complimentary portfolios. They also have ambitions and we believe we’ll be able to provide more technical support to the joint venture.

Tannico was only created in 2012 and is an established player. If you look at the various markets, you have a lot of new players, and it’s a very fragmented market. If you can offer best-in-class service, it will definitely have an appeal to shoppers.

Image credit: Campari Group