Tbilvino, one of the largest producers and exporters of Georgian wine, has made a strategic decision to suspend economic activity in Russia. It should be noted that the Russian market has so far accounted for 21% of the company's annual sales.
“Recent events and subsequent global pressure on the Russian economic system have a major impact on business expectations, long-term prospects and, in general, will also bring about a major change in the logistics chain. At the same time, imposed sanctions on the Russian banking and financial system and currency devaluation process would further exasperate transactions. Since the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine, we have been thoroughly examining all the risks or changes, including the reputational risks, that may affect our commercial situation in this respect.” – says Zura Margvelashvili, Founder of Tbilvino.
Ongoing hostilities in Ukraine have made the situation stressful and unpredictable in Russia and the region in general, which, along with the reputation risk, creates an unfavorable outlook for doing business.
Company’s long-term strategy has always been to diversify markets and produce high quality product and promote Georgian wine and "Tbilvino" trade marks all over the world.
As Gaga Margvelashvili, Founder of Tbilvino states, “We have always strived to let customers around the world discover and appreciate Georgian wines and we are proud to be present in 30 countries today. However expansion and growth in the emerging and existing markets is even more important now and we plan to increase our efforts to find new partners and increase sales with the existing ones and develop alternatives of logistical channels for both import and export.”
Despite the crisis in the region, the company continues to work on expanding production, introducing even better methods of corporate governance and quality control, and integrating modern technological or other types of systems into the business process.
Despite the regional crises, the company is actively working on increasing the production capacity, improving corporate governance and quality control systems and modernization of technology and performance capacities. At the moment, Tbilvino is conducting negotiations with a large international financial organizations, which will provide remarkable investment opportunity and will be an important step for the development of the company. In this process, minimizing unstable and risky operations becomes even more important.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Tbilvino has been in regular contact with partners in Ukraine to obtain firsthand information about the humanitarian needs and address them in an urgent manner. The company shipped humanitarian cargo to Ukrainian partners in the first week of the war.
Zura Margvelashvili, Founder of Tbilvino: “The main thing we can do now is to support and help Ukrainian people. We send humanitarian cargo to Ukraine, donate on behalf of the company and our employees to specially created funds and strongly believe that in the near future we will be able to resume operations with our Ukrainian partners.”
Tbilvino is a leading wine producer in Georgia, whose products are known, valued and trusted in more than 30 countries around the world. The brand’s history starts in the 60ies of the last century. In 1962, one of the largest wineries in Georgia was opened, which became a private company in the 90ies and soon established an important place in the local and international markets. Tbilvino has been recognized and acknowledged with numerous awards, to name the few - the London International Competition: Decanter World Wine Awards, International Wine Challenge and International Wine & Spirit Competition. The area of Tbilvino vineyards is 405 hectares. Various Georgian grape varieties are cultivated in the vineyards and are located in Kindzmarauli, Mukuzani and Tsinandali microzones. In total, more than 500 people work in Tbilvino in Tbilisi and Kakheti region. For more information about the company please visit: http://tbilvino.ge/
