Fine wine investor Cult Wines to make splash in Hong Kong
Fine wine investor Cult Wines is poised to open a new office in Hong Kong to take advantage of increasing demand in Asia for rare and expensive bottles of tipple.
The company, founded by the BBC’s Apprentice finalist Tom Gearing in 2007, said it has seen a rise of new markets such as Hong Kong and China, with 30 per cent of the US$352m of wine sold at auction in 2014 accounted for by Hong Kong buyers alone.
China’s consumption of wine has been growing by 20 per cent a year, according to Knight Frank, despite a government clampdown on gifting.
Cult Wines said its Hong Kong office, its first outside of the UK, will open in the first quarter of the year.
The company procures and manages fine wine portfolios worth £30m for 1,800 clients across 55 countries. It is aiming for £25m of sales next year and £50m by 2020.
“Our performance over the last year has helped us cement our position as one of the leaders in the wine investment market and we see targeting the Hong Kong & China market as a natural extension of our current growth plans,” Gearing said.