Pieroth
Tradition that innovates

Pieroth is a rarity in this modern, fast-paced world: a large and successful business that has been in family ownership for more than 300 years. Heinrich Pieroth began producing wine in 1675 in the German village of Stromberg in the Nahe valley, still the location of the company’s headquarters. As the centuries passed, the company’s reputation grew. By the 20th century, the need had developed to distinguish its superior quality wines from those of other producers, and the now legendary Pieroth Eagle logo was born in 1930. It has undergone several changes since, but still stands for “exquisite and superior quality wines”.
To celebrate Pieroth’s 300th anniversary in 1975, the “Blue Bottle” was created, establishing a clear identity for the traditional Pieroth wine-producing region and to distinguish its unique wines from those of other Rhine and Moselle area producers. For over 30 years, Pieroth has been bottling its superior fruity Nahe wine in the bottle known worldwide as “Pieroth Blue”.
When Elmar and Kuno Pieroth took charge of the company in 1953, they initiated “Pieroth Home Wine Tasting”, an innovative idea allowing customers to taste and select wines at their leisure at home or in their office. At this time this was seen as a revolutionary scheme, but today it’s the widely favoured way for discerning wine lovers to choose their wines.
Now let’s hear from Marco Lobo, CEO of Pieroth Japan:
“We were able to become the World’s No. 1 Direct Sales Wine Company by honouring long-established values but moving with the times. ‘Globalization’ is the all-powerful slogan today, but Pieroth went global in 1958, establishing subsidiaries worldwide. Pieroth Japan became the first Asian venture in 1969; it now employs more than 500 people working from 35 sales offices nationwide.”
What is Pieroth Japan’s position in the era of globalization?
“While remaining part of the German firm Pieroth, throughout the last twenty years we’ve been trying to establish an independent identity and install ourselves in Asia. We now have 20 companies worldwide, and in Asia we’ve established companies in Korea, China and Japan. Japan is standing pretty much on its own, so I’m trying to bring it along as a player in the international Pieroth team.”
In Japan, Pieroth distributes an impressive range of 1,600 wines, ranging from the wine market to direct sales to restaurants, department stores and wholesalers, mail orders, and Internet sales. Many of the wines imported are grown and produced for Pieroth’s worldwide group member companies. But Pieroth Japan also represents famous estates and wineries from various countries.
What are Pieroth’s main objectives?
“Our core business today is still selling directly to our 250,000 private customers. We visit their homes and offices, attend social functions to meet their convenience, and create commemorative wines with personalized labels—including their company logo, for example. We also regularly hold wine tastings and continue to introduce new products into Japan. This is how the Pieroth business has been growing here, and the one-to-one relationship between our sales personnel and our clients has always been a fundamental aspect of our policy.”
What strategies have you employed to penetrate the Japanese market?
“Japan’s a traditional marketplace with the three-tier distribution system still in full force. But we try to avoid using several levels of wholesalers as much as possible, particularly in the catering business. We sell directly to many restaurants, sort of circumventing the system, but it’s impossible to get away from it completely. Our strategy has always been ‘The best way in which to serve our customers’—how to offer the best service to the client. To grow, we must continue to pursue that. If the best option is to go through a wholesaler, then we’ll use their services.
“We consider it important to make our expertise available to customers. For instance, we make many wines for the Japanese market to be sold exclusively with their own labels, such as wines for gourmet cooking schools and restaurants.We also deal with everything related to wine. We have three brands of cellars—quite a significant business for us—and we sell a variety of wine-related accessories, such as wine buckets and glasses, especially to restaurants. That helps to boost our sales.”
What do you think you were able to bring to the wine business after becoming Pieroth’s CEO?
“Wine is still perceived to be an Old World agricultural industry, but today we’re selling to very modern, sophisticated consumers. So at Pieroth we deal with both sides, the new and the old. To expand our horizons, every year we join about 100 fairs that are not solely to do with the trade, such as book fairs, antique fairs, and jewellery fairs. And in 2006, we created the first ever major large wine auction. It took place in Tokyo and we intend to make it an annual event. We’ve also launched our own website to provide up-to-date information to our customers and facilitate purchasing.”
What would you consider to be a unique feature of Pieroth?
“I believe it’s the ‘Wow Factor’ of our warehouse, where we keep millions of bottles, some very rare and old. We tie up money for long periods of time in order to keep this great range of wines, including vintage Bordeaux wines and our unique collection of antique wines, such as the Massandra collection, the last Russian Tsar’s wines, and incredible Armagnac from the 1700’s. We have to invest a lot of money to acquire such a great collection and keep it dormant in our Japanese warehouses.”
And how would you foresee the future for Pieroth Japan?
“Compared with a decade ago, we’ve tripled our sales, and over the next eight to ten years we could well double our sales again. We see ourselves poised to serve the needs of the high end of the market; we’re already one of the biggest in Bordeaux sales, within the top two or three companies in Japan. We’re interested in high-end luxury wines and that’s where our focus is right now. Taking into account the ever-increasing popularity of wine in Japan, I’d like to create a vinoteca that would have the Pieroth’s ‘Wow Factor’—with wine wines stored in the traditional manner to present a very dramatic effect, a space where people would feel they were walking through an old cellar whilst glimpsing incredible gems lying behind the bars!”
Your company holds more than 1,700 wines. Which do you consider to be your favourites?
“That’s a difficult question... Two that I really enjoy drinking are Chateau Rauzan Segla (from Bordeaux/Margaux) and a Priorat Wine from the North of Spain, Mas d’en Gil Clos Fonta.”
It’s hard to believe that when Elmar Pieroth visited Japan in 1968 he was told that wine was just “weak whisky”! In today’s Tokyo, it’s possible to enjoy a glass of fine wine even at counters inside subway stations. Wine has come a long way in the last forty years. CEO Lobo’s prediction about Pieroth doubling its sales in the next decade may prove to be very conservative