The UK’s largest selling South African wine brand and sponsor of the British & Irish Lions Australia Tour 2013, is working with the Leinster and Irish international to drive awareness of FirstCape to become a leading brand in the republic – a key development market.
Steve Barton, joint UK director of Brand Phoenix which owns First Cape, said: “The Republic of Ireland wine market is currently 8.5m 9-litre cases and we see a fantastic opportunity to grow our share of the market to around 500,000 9-litre cases across the FirstCape portfolio of wines and lighter style brands.
“We intend to increase our distribution across the core retail outlets with strong price promotions aligned to our ambassador programme to drive growth and cement a strong position in the Irish market,” said Barton.
FirstCape has long been associated with rugby, Heaslip is a household name in Ireland. “We are delighted to be working with Jamie as the season kicks off and as he anticipates a likely place in next year’s Lions tour to Australia,” said Barton.
FirstCape has been a top five wine brand in the UK for the last five years and is the fastest growing brand in the lighter style category.
