News: TWE Australia's Treasury Wine building staff, marketing in China after tariffs lifted

SYDNEY, May 7 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest wine producer Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) will build its workforce and marketing budget in China this year as it navigates a reentry to a market where it was effectively locked out by tariffs, CEO Tim Ford said on Tuesday.

Treasury, maker of the Penfolds, Wolf Blass and 19 Crimes labels, temporarily lost its biggest market starting in 2020, when China slapped massive tariffs on a host of Australian exports during a wide-ranging diplomatic dispute.

That ended in March when China said it was axing the tariffs as relations between the countries thawed.

Treasury started holding back wine shipments to other markets six months ago in anticipation of a China reopening, but would need time to rebuild its distribution network there, Ford said.

The Australian company had maintained a China team of about 120 people during the dispute but "we expect to get to somewhere around a 200-person team in China, probably by July-August", Ford told the Macquarie Australia Conference.

"There will be a step up in (marketing spend in) China particularly over the next 12 months to really build the presence of the brand again," he added.

Ford noted that the value of China's wine market was down about 25% on 2019 levels, partly due to the loss of Australian products.

"The reality is, when you've got zero share of what is 75% of what was a big market, that still is a significant opportunity," he added.