My Story by Michelle Anderson-Sims

?In 2023, WIAG celebrates its 10th birthday.

I remember when I first discovered the concept of the prefilled, single serve wine. As a single mum, I had taken my four children on a trip through Europe to teach them how to get themselves around the world. ?It was during a journey on the London Underground when I was reading a newspaper article about a single serve wine. I thought this concept would be beneficial to the Australian market where outdoor dining, B.B.Q’s and events were in need of a non-glass solution.

I tore the article from the paper and placed it in my purse. Many months later, after dinner was done and bedtime stories read, I would spend hours researching the single serve concept.?My research led to James Martin of Copa Di Vino in The Dalles, USA who was producing a single serve concept under licence.?I returned to Australia in October 2013 as the Australian distributor for the Copa Di Vino single serve wine and arranged to import the products.

The first container was a great success and quickly sold into the Australian market.?However, the second container was a big failure and all the stock had to be dumped! Hard lesson learnt but convinced the Australian market liked the concept, the style of glass was simply not a traditional wine glass as identified with the Australian consumer and Australian quality wine was in demand.

I had a new glass model designed.?A glass style with an optional firm detachable stem, creating the traditional wine glass and returning a form of elegance to the single serve market. The glass was made of 100% fully recyclable and reusable virgin PET. ?

A filling line was brought in-country and quality Australian wine went into the cups. I learnt to prepare wine, run a filling line, fix a filling line, and chasing dissolved oxygen pick up became my speciality. From there we never looked back.?It seemed the world wanted Australian wines in single serve format and we began exporting to Japan, China, South Korea, New Zealand and Malaysia.

In 2020 the business relocated from a regional town on the border of New South Wales and Victoria to Epping, Melbourne.?Relocating to Epping saw many new opportunities for the business.?Awards were won, major new clients found us and a very competent and dedicated team evolved.

2022 saw WIAG attended its first Australian trade shows in Melbourne and Sydney with pleasing result.?The brand awareness had begun in Australia.?End user demand... ‘where can we buy this?’ began to dominate our messages on social media.?More calls from independent retail outlets wanting to source the product.?We ranged with Gate Gourmet on the Sydney trains, with PFD in Victoria, and many independent sellers along the east coast. Orders were despatched destined for way up into Far North Queensland and we opened more ecommerce platforms to help meet end user demand.

In October of 2022, we began our first container exports into Ecuador and Vietnam and became the number one selling single serve wine in South Korea, including distribution through Costco, the Lotte Group and Korean airlines. Working closely with Liquortime. We introduced the Rosé to the Australian market. We introduced the consumer 12 pack in Australia and maintained a 24 unit pack for wholesale, events and export. The 4 pack continues to dominate the export market.

During 2023 we will bring the ‘grab and go’ four pack to the Australian market and continue to grow our existing customer base with new members destined to join our team. www.wineinaglass.com.au