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NEW NORMAL

port of call, your agent or importer must take Canadian wine competition, Sélections Mon-
care of a lot of things and pay a lot of money diales des Vins in Quebec, is sponsored by the
for duties and taxes. After completing all of monopoly of the Québec province - SAQ (So-
this, they will take the wines to their warehou- ciété des alcools du Québec). Wines that win
se and half the victory is yours. a big gold medal are listed in SAQ as part of
The USA separates the various stages of fo- the prize! And this is a very prestigious club!
reign and domestic trade. If you find this path too difficult, you must
You would be really lucky to have your agent find an agent again. The agent‘s role is even
and importer who is also a distributor that has more important than in the USA and almost all
the necessary license. You can have several wines supplied to SAQ are supplied by agents,
distributors, ideally one for each state. Of cour- with the exception of only large multinational
se, you don‘t have to start with all fifty of them companies. However, it also has a number of
right away! risks. SAQ expects your wines to sell and it also
You have to find them yourself or through makes a good promo for them. If not, your con-
your agent, then you have to agree on the tract will be terminated. And not just that, read
terms of business, prices, maturities and what the contract with the monopoly and the agent
is important at the beginning - you have to thoroughly. They expect to make some profit
agree on the form and scope of sales sup- on your wines - and if they don‘t, they will bill
port. How else do you want to address the new you. If so, you can continue and you will be in-
market without advertising, PR, POS events, vited to submit your offer twice a year.
tastings and activities on social networks? For more detailed information visit:
Surely each state has its own „Parker“, to https://www.saq-b2b.com/wx/en/mem-
whom the wines need to be sent for tasting berszone.presentation.static_pages_display_
berszone.presentat
and a description. It works, although it is so- prep/policy_standard/
metimes quite expensive. You can‘t buy their nm/tabfournisseurs
positive evaluation, you just buy their time. for Québec SAQ and
The distributor‘s role is to deliver your wines https://www.doingbu-
to shops and restaurants or to other retailers, sinesswithlcbo.com/con-
such as online malls. tent/dbwl/en/basepage/
At the right time, you must be able to play home/new-supplier-
the „Show Your Face“ game. You will simply -agent/LCBOProductSub-
come to the USA for two weeks and make mission.html for Ontario
your business partners, journalists, owners of LCBO (Liquor Control
restaurants and shops and representatives of Board of Ontario)
national expat organizations get familiar with LCBO does not have
your wine and brand. any such competition.
Don‘t expect to get back the costs of the SAQ and LCBO stores
first container. On the contrary, it will cost you are well equipped, they are everywhere and
a lot of money. However, on the second con- they have long opening hours. Although get-
tainer, you could already break even and you ting in them is difficult, it is not impossible. It‘s
could make your first profit on the third one. like an ISO or a kosher hechsher הֶכְשֵׁר prior
In Canada, it‘s seemingly easier. approval. It takes a lot of effort to fulfill every-
I once read a quote that the easiest way to be- thing and work your way to it. However, once
come a member of the Wimbledon Lawn Ten- you know how to do it and follow all requi-
nis Club is to win a Wimbledon tournament. rements, your life will become normal again,
It‘s similar in Canada. The most important maybe even better. ƅ
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