Carlos de Jesus, marketing director of Amorim, talked us through the importance of cork in the marketing of wine at WBIS in Munich

1. CORK STOPPER: ADDING VALUE TO WINE

2. AMORIM KEY FIGURES
35% of world cork manufacturing;
534 M€ revenues from 22k customers;
95% exports to more than 100 countries;
6 M€ annual R&D investment;
21 patents submitted in the past five years;
36 units with FSC certification;
3 350 associates.
Euronext-listed stock
AMORIM IS
REGISTERING
RECORD-BREAKING
RESULTS THREE
YEARS IN A ROW!

3. CORK:
800 MILLION CELLS IN A SINGLE CORK STOPPER

4. CORK IS A 100% NATURAL, RECYCLABLE AND RENEWABLE
MATERIAL...
Sound insulator
Thermal effective
Impermeable to liquids and gases
Elastic and compressible
Resilient
Very light
High temperature resistant
Fire retardant
Hypoallergenic
Shock absorbent
Soft touch
Warm feeling

5. ONLY AFTER THE 3RD HARVESTING
– 43 YEARS –
DOES CORK ACHIEVE THE STANDARDS
OF QUALITY REQUIRED FOR A NATURAL
CORK STOPPER

6. 2.1 MILLION HECTARES
Argelia
4.9%
Tunisia
3.5%
Morocco
5.8%
France
2.6%
Italy
3.1%
Portugal
49.6%
Spain
30.5%

7. CORK OAK FOREST IS ONE OF THE
35 GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS…
IN EVERY 1.000 M2,
On par with natural wonders, as Amazonia,
Africa or Borneo
Habitat for 37 species of mammals, 160
species of birds, and 24 species of reptiles
and amphibians, including highly endangered
species
THERE ARE ABOUT
135 SPECIES

8. ...AND A BARRIER AGAINST DESERIFICATION
Cork forests improve soil’s organic matter,
contribute to regulate the hydrological cycle,
while acting as a deterrent against
social desertification
Cork harvesting is the best paid agricultural
work in the world, due to the expertise and care
It requires
ACCORDING TO
WWF, OVER
100,000 DEPEND
DIRECTLY
OR INDIRECTLY ON
THIS ECONOMY

9. CO2 EMISSIONS (G/1000 STOPPERS)
EACH CORK
37172,5
14833,4
40000
20000
0
-20000
Cork
Aluminium
Plastic
-40000
-60000
-80000
-100000
-120000
-112014,9
LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF CORK STOPPERS VS ALTERNATIVE CLOSURES, BY PWC/ ECOBILAN
STOPPER RETAINS
112 GRAMS OF
CO2, IN STARK
CONTRAST WITH
THE CARBON
EMISSIONS CAUSED
BY ARTIFICIAL
CLOSURES

10. OIV NEW ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS HIGHLIGHT THE
BENEFITS OF CORK
In the GHGAP, OIV recognizes the supremacy and positive
impact of cork stoppers in the calculation of CO2 emissions
According to OIV, Cork stoppers are a specific feature of the
winegrowing sector, and their use has an important impact
on sustainable forest conservation
GREEN HOUSE GAS ACCOUNTING PROTOCOL, ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE LA VIGNE ET DU VIN

11. AND WHAT DOES WINE HAVE TO DO WITH ALL THIS?

12. CORK AND WINE
The stopper creates 70% of the value-added
created for cork.
EVERY TIME A
BOTTLE OF WINE
UNDER CORK IS
2%
OPENED, A CRUCIAL
CONTRIBUTION TO
6%
22%
Cork stoppers
Building materials
70%
Raw material
Others
MAIN EXPORTED PRODUCTS, 2011, SOURCE: INE
ALL THIS IS MADE.

13. GREAT, BUT IS THERE ANY MARKET RECOGNITION?
CORK STOPPERS PREMIUM PERCEPTION
200-YEAR OLD CHAMPAGNE, BALTIC SEA

15. MARKET RECOGNITION
CORK
EVOLUTION OF CLOSURES MARKET
STOPPER:
GAINING MARKET
14.000
SHARE SINCE
2010
12.000
10.000
Cortiça
Plástico
6.000
SHARE SINCE
Screwcap
8.000
PLASTIC:
LOOSING MARKET
2007
4.000
SCREWCAP:
SLOWER LINE OF
2.000
GROWTH
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012*

16. MARKET RECOGNITION
CONSUMERS PREFER CORK
94%
92% of Spanish consumers
prefer cork stoppers and for
of the US wine consumers
86% it preserves the
prefer natural cork and 93%
consider that this solution
means quality wine
properties of the wine better
90% of Italian wine lovers
consider that the ritual of opening
a wine bottle and smelling cork
makes the wine more pleasant to
drink
89,3%
of French wine lovers prefer the cork
stopper and 89.8% state that cork
stoppers preserve the full aromas

17. MARKET RECOGNITION IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST
WINE MARKET
Consecutive studies show the unequivocal preference of
consumers for cork, thus impacting directly on wine sales
volume and value:
US consumers are
willing to spend
US$1.10 more for
a wine sealed with
cork
Top US 100 wine brands priced at 6$ or more per 750ml bottle, Nielsen TS data

18. MARKET RECOGNITION IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST
WINE MARKET
Leadership on all
price segments
assessed, with
particular focus on
the fastest growing
price points
Top US 100 wine brands priced at 6$ or more per 750ml bottle, Nielsen TS data

19. MARKET RECOGNITION
NEW WORLD WINE PRODUCERS RETURN TO NATURAL CORK STOPPERS
“It became clear that cork is
best for our wines.”
Christian Canute
Rusden Wines’ Oenologist
“By bottling our
wine under
screwcaps, we
were lowering the
wine’s quality”.
Adam Mason,
Klein Constantia’s
Oenologist
“ Cork is the only closure which
enables me to market my wine as
premium product in this market
(China).”
Ryan Kinghorn,
CEO of Haselgrove
“You will notice one significant change;
after considerable thought we have
returned to using cork closures for
Special Selection wines.”
Tony Bish,
Oenologist at Sacred Hill

20. MARKET RECOGNITION
OPINION LEADERS
“Cork quality is on the rise.”
James Laube
Wine critic, Wine Spectator
“The quality of cork has clearly improved
and positive developments have been
registered in the cork industry”.
Robert Parker
Wine critic at Wine Advocate
“Natural cork remains the highest rated
closure among US wineries in terms of
“overall perceptions”.
Wine Business Monthly
2009 Closure Report
“Perhaps the best news is that we had
pratically no bottles contaminated by TCA,
which means that the cork industry took
the TCA problem seriously.”
Jancis Robinson

21. WHAT ABOUT THE FUTURE?

22. AMORIM WILL CONTINUE FOCUSED IN REASSERTING NATURAL
CORK AS THE BEST WINE CLOSURE
AND
REGAINING MARKET SHARE FROM ALTERNATIVE CORKS
BY
LEVERAGING THE CLEAR CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR NATURAL
CORK AND THE EXCELLENT TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE CORK
OFFERS

23. THANK YOU!
WWW.AMORIMCORK.COM