Vinitaly partners with Chinese online retailer

The Vinitaly International Academy has partnered with one of China’s largest online retailers ‘1919’.

Vinitaly International’s managing director, Stevie Kim (l) and Shanghai 1919’s general manager, Andrew Tan (c) and Simone Incontro, chief of Vinitaly International’s Shanghai Bureau

The new deal sees 1919 become an official educational partner of both Vinitaly International and the Vinitaly International Academy.

The retailer is China’s third biggest online-to-offline platform behind Tmall and JD and has over 1,000 stores in 500 cities across every one of mainland China’s provinces.

The deal was struck last week on 10 March and comes just before the fourth edition of the Vinitaly Chengdu Fair, which will run from 19-22 March.

To celebrate the new partnership a gala dinner will be held on 20 March where, as well as pairing Sichuanese food with Italian wine, some 40 Italian producers will be seated with over 100 mainland distributors.

Andrew Tan, general manager of 1919’s purchasing subsidiary, Shanghai 1919 Global Procurement, commented: “We chose Vinitaly International as our partner as they are the leaders of Italian wine in China. I can tell Vinitaly is always looking for innovative and useful tools to foster b2b connections.

“They were the first to set up the Italian wine pavilion during the ‘International Wine and Spirits Show’ in Chengdu. This partnership with 1919 and the fabulous Gala Dinner with Italian wine producers celebrate Vinitaly’s long-lasting commitment to Chengdu and we are looking forward to what future collaborations will bring.”

Stevie Kim, Vinitaly International’s managing director states: “This isn’t the first time 1919 has appeared on our agenda. Andrew Tan highlighted the importance of an effective logistics system in the successful on-line/off-line business, 1919 at our Vinitaly showcase wine2wine Asia last year.

“At the time, Mr Tan revealed that an average of just 60 square meters of retail space with 600-700 wine labels, 1919 can deliver a bottle of wine, chilled, within 19 minutes in 500 cities throughout China. The projected growth for 1919 is exponential and 1919 seems to be a solid choice for us to extend the knowledge of Italian Wine through our Vinitaly International Academy and we are honoured.”