Bruce Kemp has been appointed president of the Winemakers Federation of Australia.
Rationalising the organisational structure of the Australian wine industry is a top priority for the former Southcorp boss – and BMW motorcycle enthusiast.
‘There needs to be a genuine effort to revitalise,’ Kemp, CEO of Southcorp Wines from 1992-99, said, referring to reforms recommended by a review completed last year.
‘If any wine company had the amount of duplication the industry has they would have gone to their end a long time ago.’
Kemp, currently CEO of Global Wine Advice, chairman of Piper’s Brook winery, chairman of closure producer Anthony Smith & Associates, and a board member of Tarac Australia, also advises Sydney-based global investment institution Macquarie Bank on wine industry mergers and acquisitions.
Macquarie chairman, David Clarke, was president of WFA until December when he resigned because of ill health.
He said that other priorities included taxation of wine and alcohol consumption restructuring supply.
‘The market always works better if it is one case short of demand rather than having one case more,’ he said.
Written by Chris Snow
