Her previous five years had been spent as Director of Strategy and External Affairs with the Portman Group, a self-regulatory body in the alcoholic drinks industry. At the time of her departure, Portman Group Chief Executive, Matt Lambert said “Whilst we are sad to say goodbye to Nicola, we are pleased to see that WineGB has gained an outstanding new Chief Executive who will be a strong advocate for English and Welsh wine producers.”
Bates joined Britain’s wine industry at a time of considerable growth and of increased awareness. With over 1000, there are now more vineyards in the UK than ever before. In addition, there are more than 221 wineries and over 4200ha in production. This represents a 123% increase over the last 10 years. 2023 was a bumper harvest with more than 21 million bottles being produced. However, the vagaries of the British weather has, once again, illustrated the challenges of making wine in the UK. The harvest of 2024 was a very different story with yields across the country reduced by as much as 40%.
We met up with Nicola Bates to ask how the first year had been and what the plans for the future are. The obvious first question, how is it going? “It’s going well; I think you should ask my team and my board but we’ve had lots of engagement with members; the plan is to listen then to deliver; listening and delivering equals value”. Bates explained that in her first year the strengthened WineGB team has been in listening mode. There were more than 160 responses to the WineGB members strategy and satisfaction questionnaire and more than 150 people attended seven regional roadshows. In addition to the general membership 30 regional chairs, working group chairs and the board have also had their input.
When Bates arrived in post the first task was to have a look at the current capability of the organisation, “we have an incredibly good team but there were some gaps”. Gillian Jordan, a former pharmaceutical regulatory compliance manager with viticulture and oenology knowledge from Plumpton, was bought in to provide information to members. She will work with partners and others to collate information and relay it in a coherent manner and provide members with the guidance that they need.
Bates explained that there was also a lack of an advocate to work on behalf of the industry. “A big part of any trade association is having a collective voice”. Bates explained that the voice needs to be heard and that is done through PR and speaking to government. Vincent McGovern was recruited; he had previously worked with Drinks Europe and Drinks Ireland. He is well equipped to put forward arguments to government. In addition to the new faces, other members of the already assembled team have expanded their role and their expertise. Bates clearly feels that she now has a robust team in place to move WineGB and the industry forward.
It is now time for delivering and adding value, if members can see results then satisfaction rates go up “if the members are happy then I am happy and so far, so good!”. As for action, there is now a three-year plan in place which Bates has been presenting to members.
What has cropped up that you hadn’t anticipated? – “The general election!”. The change of government and the budget have been bumps in the road. However, adding her own positive reflection, Bates said that perhaps a new government might represent “new ears to some of our asks”. But some things have been held up, for example, £1.5 million had been allocated by the previous government for wine education prior to the election. The money had been announced but it hadn’t been ‘ticked off’, therefore the funds are yet to materialise. WineGB, with Plumpton College, is talking to the government with the aim of annualising that sum and to build the case for funding education so that those in the industry can plan for the future.
Have your priorities changed? One of the primary aims for Bates in the first year was to get a ‘Manifesto for Growth’ written. This is fundamentally threefold: “what are our producers doing; what we as WineGB is doing; and what can government do to play a partnership role in supporting the growth of this sector?” Bates believes passionately that the sector needs government support “there have been no new international wine sectors which have been able to succeed without government support”. Bates is very keen to broadcast the message of growth over the last five years, illustrating the proven potential of the industry, to government and appeal for their support. To achieve this Bates is looking at three areas, being; fairer business, not solely but including duty; better environment, including infrastructure and sustainability; and valuing ‘British’ including the protection of British grapes. These are not recent issues but placing them into one document to present to government will be more coherent and a stronger message or as Nicola says “this is palpably what is going to help our sector to move forward”.
WineGB is also working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to get viticulture covered by the ‘Kit Fund’, a fund available to the agriculture sector for specific equipment. Bates wants to ensure that equipment required for viticulture is covered by the specification. Further application is being made for support for the equipment required in wineries.
The budget? Very poignant on the day that farmers were driving tractors through London to protest against the recent announcement about Inheritance Tax changes. Bates said that pioneers were being penalised. People who had been prepared to take a risk on planting a vineyard and ploughing money into the fledgling industry were going to suffer. It wasn’t just the Inheritance Tax issue but the cumulative, negative effects together with increased employee National Insurance contributions, increased duty on wine and an increased minimum wage. All this has been applied in the UK but when you look across to Italy or France where the industry receives capital support and doesn’t suffer duty, they are working in a completely different fiscal environment to the industry in the UK. “It is just incredibly difficult in the most competitive wine sales environment in the world, that has its own domestic production, to have that sense of opportunity. The fact that sales grew by 10% last year is remarkable when compared to the average growth of 1% for wine generally. If you took some of the brakes off the economic drivers then you just give us a much greater chance”. Bates said that if this were to happen people would see the opportunity and transition into the industry and encourage inward investment. This would help the rural economy and is clearly a net win but the opportunity is just not there at the moment.
When asked about the strengths of WineGB and the industry generally Bates immediately said “collaboration”. She explained that she has a tremendous board at WineGB and seven regional chairs who, along with many others, give up a lot of their time. Bates said that about 150 to 160 volunteers have been involved with working groups associated with WineGB. When you consider the size of the industry it is quite a high percentage of people engaged. In addition, there is the Plumpton College network and international collaboration. There is a real feeling that many producers are happy to chip in and support their colleagues within the industry.
That positive feel extends to the product. Bates said that the UK wine industry is still relatively new and it is still novel. However, it is of extremely good quality and now that worldwide consumption has reduced people are, perhaps, drinking less but better quality wines. There is tremendous brand loyalty and a strengthening tourism industry around wine.
Bates feels that the opportunities are abundant, there are great producers, there is a wonderful team at WineGB and the industry’s reputation is strong. She went on to say that it is a brilliant job and that she loves the people and the opportunities the role presents. The next challenge is to deliver the core objectives. A lot of the foundation work has been done, there are new team members and WineGB has listened; now is the time for action. If the level of success of WineGB reaches half the that of Bates’ enthusiasm and energy for the role then the UK wine industry is in a very strong position.
In the next part of the interview, we explore the future including WineGB’s three-year strategy.
Share
News
