The bubbly boom in SA is at least partly due to the high discretionary spending power of the beneficiaries of the state’s largesse. This, together with the disinclination of the authorities to prosecute for corruption the politically well connected, created the environment for conspicuous consumption on which the branded champagne business depends.
The other equally important factor has been the role played in SA by the world’s largest champagne producer. LVMH — whose brands include Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon and Krug — identified the opportunity early on and invested heavily in building the market for its key products. (It did the same for Cognac Hennessy and obtained similar results). You grow brands by having the money to spend on them and by having the vision and willingness to invest ahead of the revenue curve. If not, you will always be a follower. LVMH has done for fizz what SAB did for beer.
LVMH is the dominant player in champagne worldwide, with more than 20% of the total market. Its nearest competitor is Vranken-Pommery. For most of the time that LVMH was building the category, the invisibility of Vranken-Pommery’s flagship Pommery brand in the SA market was noteworthy. Now, with a new importer, and striking new packaging, Pommery is back. Since champagne almost everywhere else is in decline, its shareholders are aiming to share in our localised boom.
Pommery is a venerable brand dating back to the mid-19th century. Like several of the important houses of the era (Clicquot and Bollinger, for example), it made its greatest progress under the direction of the widow who inherited the business after the sudden death of her husband. Madame Louise Pommery was a great innovator. She developed the system of underground chalk tunnels now widely used for ageing champagne; she was the first producer of a brut cuvée (in those days all champagne was sweet); she pioneered health and retirement funds for employees. When she died in 1890 she was the first woman to receive a French state funeral.
The Pommery cuvées now available in SA are the Brut Royal, the Apanage Blanc de Blancs, Rosé and demi-sec. The Brut Royal — a blend of one third each of pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay — delivers purity and finesse, citrus-like freshness rather than a textural creaminess: it’s the kind of champagne you can drink very easily.
The big question is commercial, rather than organoleptic, not how it tastes, but how it’s perceived. Pommery has the look, feel and flavour profile needed to ensure visibility; its distributor has the necessary clout. This may just be the combination needed to give the market some long overdue disruption.
MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Toast SA’s conspicuous consumption with a flute of champagne
LVMH identified the opportunity early and has invested heavily in building the market for its key products in the country
Image: Supplied
The French champagne industry is in crisis — a situation that is likely to deteriorate dramatically as the impact of US tariffs is felt. The 2022 shipments (domestically and internationally) totalled 325-million bottles. In 2023 this dropped to 299-million bottles. The 2024 figures reveal a further decline to 271-million. The French domestic market share has been shrinking for years. At its peak it accounted for 188-million bottles. It’s now 118-million: the prospects of salvation on this front are not good.
Add to this the importance of the market that has now taken a big hit — the US. In 2024 America was the region’s biggest export customer consuming more than 27-million bottles. Us President Donald Trump’s ad valorem duties will certainly affect this volume. Taken together with the long-term reduction in demand, it’s not impossible that 2025 will finish 25% down on the 2022 figures.
SA is one of the few countries that has largely bucked the trend. Since the ANC’s electoral victory in 1994, shipments to SA have climbed, bringing us into the top-20 champagne-consuming nations. That’s not bad for a country with unemployment above 30% and only 5-million individual taxpayers. The US, with 30 times our number of taxpayers, only imports about 20 times our volumes. No-one can deny that when it comes to consuming champagne, we punch above our weight.
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The bubbly boom in SA is at least partly due to the high discretionary spending power of the beneficiaries of the state’s largesse. This, together with the disinclination of the authorities to prosecute for corruption the politically well connected, created the environment for conspicuous consumption on which the branded champagne business depends.
The other equally important factor has been the role played in SA by the world’s largest champagne producer. LVMH — whose brands include Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon and Krug — identified the opportunity early on and invested heavily in building the market for its key products. (It did the same for Cognac Hennessy and obtained similar results). You grow brands by having the money to spend on them and by having the vision and willingness to invest ahead of the revenue curve. If not, you will always be a follower. LVMH has done for fizz what SAB did for beer.
LVMH is the dominant player in champagne worldwide, with more than 20% of the total market. Its nearest competitor is Vranken-Pommery. For most of the time that LVMH was building the category, the invisibility of Vranken-Pommery’s flagship Pommery brand in the SA market was noteworthy. Now, with a new importer, and striking new packaging, Pommery is back. Since champagne almost everywhere else is in decline, its shareholders are aiming to share in our localised boom.
Pommery is a venerable brand dating back to the mid-19th century. Like several of the important houses of the era (Clicquot and Bollinger, for example), it made its greatest progress under the direction of the widow who inherited the business after the sudden death of her husband. Madame Louise Pommery was a great innovator. She developed the system of underground chalk tunnels now widely used for ageing champagne; she was the first producer of a brut cuvée (in those days all champagne was sweet); she pioneered health and retirement funds for employees. When she died in 1890 she was the first woman to receive a French state funeral.
The Pommery cuvées now available in SA are the Brut Royal, the Apanage Blanc de Blancs, Rosé and demi-sec. The Brut Royal — a blend of one third each of pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay — delivers purity and finesse, citrus-like freshness rather than a textural creaminess: it’s the kind of champagne you can drink very easily.
The big question is commercial, rather than organoleptic, not how it tastes, but how it’s perceived. Pommery has the look, feel and flavour profile needed to ensure visibility; its distributor has the necessary clout. This may just be the combination needed to give the market some long overdue disruption.
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