Forbes on the company boldly importing and promoting Croatian wines in the USA

by croatiaweek
April 8, 2024
in Business

Mirena Bagur & Win Burke, founders – Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc (Source: CroatianPremiumWine.com)

According to the Forbes article yesterday, (link at the bottom of the article) wine connoisseurs and diaspora in the USA have been able to get Croatian wines very easily for the past few years. This is thanks to Mirena Bagur and her husband Win Burke, who import numerous well-known and lesser-known wines to that country.

Mirena Bagur and her husband Win Burke have been excellent ambassadors of Croatian wines in the USA for several years. Their company Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc. imports more and more Croatian wines. They sell them in the traditional way, but also through their web store.

Mirena went to the USA at the end of the eighties, and for most of her career was involved in marketing in IT. They started the company in 2019, and that was preceded by the observation of positive trends. Ten years ago, her husband and she noticed that the quality of wine in Croatia is growing significantly every year, and at the same time they came into contact with winemakers from Neretva, where she spent her childhood.

Her husband, Win, is an engineer who, after graduating from the prestigious MIT, worked in various larger companies, and proved equally successful in the startup environment and entrepreneurship. For example, the startup Incentive Targeting, where he was CEO, was sold to Google. Given his IT background, it was understood that their company would also sell wine via the Internet.

After talking with winemakers, they researched the American market and concluded that interest in Croatian wines is increasing. In addition to its increasing quality, the number of Americans arriving in Croatia is also increasing, as well as the trend of seeking wine from unknown regions among American wine lovers.

He states that even the difficult pronunciation of the names of wines or wineries, such as Crljenak Kaštelanski, Grk and Crvik was not an obstacle for Americans when searching for those varieties.

There are more and more wines on offer, here are the most popular ones

Their web store started with 10, and today offers more than 120 wine labels. They are also proud because most of these Croatian wines win over 90 points in the ratings and competitions, such as Wine Enthusiast or TEXSOM Awards. This further helps the perception of Croatia as a wine region.

On a personal level, Mirena finds the greatest satisfaction in partnering with wineries. For example, in a conversation with the Komarna Association, they agreed on the creation of Komarna 7 wine – which is a blend of Plavac Mali. They also worked with some wineries to create labels that are more suitable for American store shelves.

The most sought-after Croatian wines are those that are very different from other types – Plavac mali, Pošip, Teran and Malvazija, but they see an increase in demand of wines from northern Croatia, because they are of excellent quality.

The diaspora is most often looking for wines from the region where their ancestors came from. He considers cooperation with the Grgich Hills winery and the sale of their Grgić Wines in the USA through their web store to be one of his successes.

Mirena points out that they have serious intentions with the company. It is not registered as LLC, but as Inc. – the legal form chosen by corporations.

(Source: CroatianPremiumWine.com)

Croatia should promote its wines like France

During Covid, they focused on expanding inventory and training the store at a higher level. Now they are again expanding distribution through hotels, restaurants and cafes.

A big problem when starting the company was the complexity of the alcohol industry in the USA. Each of the 50 states has its own rules. In addition, finding customers was also a problem, given that Croatia was not initially perceived as a wine country at all.

She states that it is slowly changing. Wine marketing in the US is left to countries and wineries. France is a perfect example – it raises the price of its bottles through education and presentations held in the USA. Thanks to this, they lead in the value of exports, even though they export less than, for example, Italy. This includes a program in four major American cities – tasting rooms, dinners and press articles.

The sale of wine from unknown exotic areas in America has revived again only this year. After the pandemic, wines from well-known regions such as France, Italy and California or very cheap wines were bought.

The main customers are the diaspora, wine connoisseurs and tourists

As for the profile of online customers – a third are the Croatian diaspora, a third are Americans who are connoisseurs of wine, and a third are tourists who plan to visit Croatia or have already been there. There is a similar profile of customers in stores or restaurants, but feedback about customers is mostly based on the organization of tasting rooms.

The diaspora experiences wine buying more emotionally than Americans, so such customers know how to call back more often and convey their impressions. One such story includes a full report from the 90th birthday of a grandfather from Brač who received a wine from that island as a gift, which he had not drunk for 30 years.

There are also some restaurants that have accepted Croatian wines on their permanent wine list.

Exchange of Chefs – Pilot Program

The creation of the first pilot program of cooperation between Croatian and American chefs is also underway. As part of it, American chefs will come to Croatia to learn about Croatian food, cuisine, customs and wines.

Posting on social networks encouraging the promotion of Croatian wines; Screenshot: Croatian Premium Wine

Mirena and Win have a plan to increase the number of wines and customers in their distribution and on the web shop. They intend to achieve this through several programs such as the wine club, the corporate gifting program and expanding distribution to many states.

They think that Croatian winemaking could be substantially helped by more assertive marketing of the quality and availability of Croatian wines. Digital marketing would be a more cost-effective choice than traditional marketing – explains Mirena. She also points out that everyone can get involved in the promotion of Croatian wines abroad. With this post on social networks, she showed one of the examples of how anyone can contribute to their popularization with simple steps.