China's leading wine maker Changyu Pioneer International said yesterday that the company would endeavor to become one of the world's top five wine brewers in five years, supported by the growing domestic wine consumers and the company's brand reorganization in overseas market.

Changyu aims at exceeding $1.7 billion in sales, becoming the world's fifth largest wine company by turnover in 2013, the company management said.

The ambitious sales target is based on favorable sales revenue of $695 million in 2007. The result made the Yantai-based company 10th largest winery in the world, according to beverage research reports.

It was the first time that an Asian company has entered the top 10 global wineries. Traditionally, the top wineries are seized by groups from France, Australia and US, said Canadean, a UK-based beverage research company.

"Wine brewing is still a booming industry in China compared to western countries, but the country has large group of avid wine consumers," said Edward Dong, manager of marketing at Changyu.

The Hong Kong-listed winery achieved a 38 percent to 40 percent annual growth in recent years and will maintain a fast growth in the years to come, Dong told China Daily at a wine and spirits exhibition yesterday.

Beer, with an annual consumption of 39 million tons, has the biggest market share in China in terms of alcoholic drinks; the next is spirits, which boast 9 million tons' consumption a year. Wine only takes a small fraction of market share with 665,000 tons, according to Dong.

"Hence, the development potential is huge," he said.

Changyu, along with Great Wall and Dynasty, are the top three wine makers in China, taking up 50 percent of the country's wine market.

Dong said Changyu's advantages are the company's good understanding of its domestic customers' need and first-class brewing technologies.

"We perfectly understand our costumers' taste, and adopt world's first-class technologies," he said.

Another wine retailer Dynasty Fine Wines Group said it provides the best quality wine in home market.

"Thanks to our world's first-class brewing facilities, our wine is considered to have best quality among home wineries," Liu Jicheng, deputy general manager of Dynasty, said at the company's exhibiting booth.

Liu said Dynasty would actively tap into overseas market but focus on home market which contributes over 90 percent of its total turnover.

The three-day wine exposition, Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, kicked off yesterday and is expected to attract over 7,000 visitors. Asian market especially China market attracted wine and spirit companies' attention from all over the world, said Robert Beynat, chief executive officer of Vinexpo Asia-Pacific.

(HK Edition 05/28/2008 page2)