Magazine: Great wines, made in business cooperation

Two important firms in the Hungarian wine market have merged recently: Nyilas Winery (Mátra wine region) and Canter Wine House (Balaton wine region) now work under joint management. Owner Ilona Nyilas, chief winemaker Gergő Gelencsér and sales director Tamás Istvándi talked to our magazine about the details. After the merger the new company is now growing grapes in a 610-hecatre area. The two companies decided to join forces based on business reasons: Nyilas is strong in exporting in bulk but wanted to enter the market with bottled wines too, while Canter owns modern processing and bottling facilities, plus has a well-established sales network in retail. They have been working together since March and plan to offer a selection of products with a superb price-value ratio. Nyilas wines will be marketed in Canter’s Csipkés line, which will expand to 9 products this way. Later white wines from the Mátra region will appear in higher-positioned product lines. In the near future marketing activity will concentrate on the Magnus range. As for developing sales, the company follows a step-by-step strategy. In the next 3 years they would like to cover the Hungarian market in full. In the medium term the goal is to conquer other markets in the region, while the long-term plan is entering the world market. In three years time Canter will produce 1.5 million bottles of wine, two thirds of which will be fragrant whites and rosés.