意大利葡萄酒进口商化“危”为机

These Italian entrepreneurs probably know better than most people the Chinese expression “wei ji,” whose equivalent in English is crisis, with “wei” signifying danger and “ji” signifying opportunity or change point. In ancient Chinese philosophy, every crisis offers a golden opportunity.

这几位意大利企业家应该比大多数人都更能理解中文“危机”这一词的含义，尽管它相当于英文中的“crisis”一词，但中文里“危”表示危险，“机”表示机遇或转机。在中国古代哲学里，每一场危机背后都蕴藏着巨大的机遇。

Alessandro Mugnano, 38, and Enrico Palmentieri, 45, from Italy, not only deeply understand this philosophy, but also put it into full practice and have obtained great success in their business.

38岁的Alessandro Mugnano和45岁的Enrico Palmentieri都来自意大利，他们不仅深谙其道，还将其充分付诸实践，并在事业上获得了巨大的成功。

Alessandro Mugnano (L) and Enrico Palmentieri pose for a photo in their office.

Alessandro Mugnano（左）和Enrico Palmentieri在办公室合影。

In 2012, the two founded Interprocom Cantine Divine in Shenzhen with two other Italian partners Ivana Mugnano and Ferdinando Rizzo. The company has grown so much that it has become China’s largest Italian wine importer since 2018. Despite the pandemic, the company achieved a 2% growth year on year in 2020 and 21% in 2021. In March this year, they also opened an Italian restaurant in Shekou, which is doing well. They will open another one by the end of September.

2012年，他们与另外两位意大利合伙人Ivana Mugnano和Ferdinando Rizzo在深圳共同成立了蒂维妮酒业。成立以来，公司发展迅猛，自2018年起，就已经成为中国最大的意大利葡萄酒进口商。虽然近几年有新冠疫情，但公司在2020年还是实现了2%的同比增长，这一增幅在2021年则达到了21%。今年3月，他们还在蛇口开了一家意大利餐厅，生意也风生水起，并计划在9月底开另一家分店。

(From L) The four co-founders of the company: Ferdinando Rizzo, Alessandro Mugnano, Ivana Mugnano and Enrico Palmentieri. Courtesy of the interviewees.

（左起）公司四个创始人：Ferdinando Rizzo、Alessandro Mugnano、Ivana Mugnano和Enrico Palmentieri。

“I really like Chinese culture. Chinese culture teaches me a lot about strategy. Sometimes the problem is not just a problem, but also an opportunity. And this is what I learned from Chinese culture,” said Palmentieri, co-founder and general manager of Interprocom Cantine Divine.

“我真的很喜欢中国文化，它教会了我很多策略。有时候，问题意味着困难，但也蕴藏着机会，这就是我从中国文化中学到的。”蒂维妮酒业的共同创始人及总经理Palmentieri说道。

Alessandro Mugnano (R) and Enrico Palmentieri receive an exclusive interview with Shenzhen Daily.

Alessandro Mugnano（右）和Enrico Palmentieri接受英文《深圳日报》的专访。

Alessandro Mugnano and Palmentieri came to Shenzhen some 12 years ago, originally planning to bring Chinese products to Italy. However, they ended up importing Italian wine to China, a huge market with great potential.

Alessandro Mugnano和Palmentieri大约12年前来到深圳，原本计划把中国产品输出到意大利，而最终，他们做起了把意大利葡萄酒输入到中国的买卖。中国市场巨大，潜力无限。

“It’s quite a funny story, because at that time we tried to do trade, to bring some good products from China to Italy. So, we came here just to look for new products, but in the end, we started to do wine business and we chose Shenzhen just because really it’s the city that we love,” Palmentieri said.

“其实挺有趣的，因为一开始我们想着做外贸，把中国的一些好产品带去意大利。所以我们来这里是想寻找新产品，但结果我们却做起了葡萄酒生意。我们选择了深圳，因为我们很爱这座城市。”Palmentieri说道。

Enrico Palmentieri shares their story with Shenzhen Daily.

Enrico Palmentieri跟英文《深圳日报》分享他们的故事。

For Mugnano, co-founder and CEO of the company, Shenzhen has been the first and only city in China where he has been living for many years. “What brought me here basically was the desire to spread the ‘Made in Italy’ in the Chinese market, and the desire to face some new challenges. I chose Shenzhen because in my opinion, Shenzhen is the fastest-growing city, one of the fastest we have in China,” he told Shenzhen Daily.

Mugnano是公司的共同创始人及首席执行官，对他来说，深圳是他在中国生活了很多年的第一座也是唯一一座城市。“我来这里是因为我想把‘意大利制造’带来中国市场，此外，我也想迎接一些新的挑战。我选择了深圳，因为在我看来，深圳是一座高速发展的城市，中国发展最快的其中一座城市。”他在接受英文《深圳日报》采访时说道。

They started from scratch 10 years ago. Currently, the company has its headquarters in Shenzhen with branch offices in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. It has 54 brands and nearly 800 SKUs of Italian wines in its portfolio.

十年前他们白手起家。目前，公司总部设在深圳，并在广州、上海和北京设有分公司。公司旗下有54个品牌的将近800款意大利葡萄酒。

Some of their representative wines.

他们比较有代表性的葡萄酒。

“At present we have in sole agency the greatest portfolio of Italian wine brands. We sell our products across 30 provinces in China. Guangdong is the province where we sell most, and actually, it’s the province where we started our distribution. We fully cover Guangdong Province since we sell our products in every single city. Shenzhen market has been developing a lot, and until now Guangdong is still the major province in terms of wine sales. Our other main areas are Shanghai, Northeast China, Sichuan, Beijing and Guangxi,” Mugnano introduced.

“目前，我们拥有最多的独家代理的意大利葡萄酒品牌。我们的产品在中国30个省份销售。广东是我们销售最多的省份，实际上，我们的销售也是从广东这里做起的。我们的销售覆盖了整个广东省，因为我们在每一个城市都销售我们的产品。深圳市场发展很快，到目前为止，广东仍然是葡萄酒销售的主要省份。我们的其他主要销售市场还有上海、东北、四川、北京和广西。”Mugnano介绍说。

However, the journey to success has not been easy for them. “We have met thousands of difficulties and problems. We can actually write a book about it,” both interviewees said. The difficulties they encountered ranged from setting up the company, to building up a team in China and overcoming the obstacles caused by the recent pandemic.

然而，从白手起家到成功，这一路走来并没有那么顺利。“我们遇到了成千上万的困难和问题，这些困难都可以写成一本书了。”两位受访者说。他们遇到的困难包括建立公司、在中国组建团队以及克服最近新冠疫情带来的不便等。

Alessandro Mugnano talks to an employee.

Alessandro Mugnano和员工交流。

One of the main difficulties was that back then, not many Chinese people knew about Italian wines. “If we talk about 10 years ago, most of our customers didn’t even know that Italy can produce wines. They thought Italy was just for fashion and shopping. So, we started everything from zero, to let them understand the potential and the quality of Italian wines, and that Italy is one of the biggest producers of wines in the world,” Mugnano explained.

其中一个主要的困难是，在公司成立之初，中国人很少听说意大利葡萄酒。“如果我们谈论10年前，那时候我们的大多数客户甚至不知道意大利产葡萄酒。他们印象中的意大利就是时尚和购物。所以，我们从零开始，让大家了解意大利葡萄酒的潜力和质量，以及意大利是世界上最大的葡萄酒生产国之一。”Mugnano解释说。

According to Palmentieri, about three years ago, white wine was not well accepted in the Chinese market, but now, the situation has changed.

Palmentieri说，大约三年前，白葡萄酒在中国市场上不是很受欢迎，但现在，情况发生了改变。

Enrico Palmentieri works in his office.

Enrico Palmentieri在办公室工作。

“The wine we like also works well and sells well in China because we can really touch the market. You have the chance to talk with people a lot. There are multiple ways. We also do some B2C events with our partners, so you can really touch the market and understand where the market is going. Now, people appreciate white wine, orange wine, different kinds of wine, and this means that the market is growing,” Palmentieri added.

“现在，我们喜欢的葡萄酒在中国也很受欢迎，卖得很好，因为我们可以接触到这里的市场，有机会跟人们进行交流。我们有多种方式接触到消费者。我们还与合作伙伴一起做一些B2C的活动，这样可以接触市场，了解市场的发展方向。现在，大家都很欣赏白葡萄酒、橙酒及其他种类的葡萄酒，这也意味着市场在不断变大。”Palmentieri补充说。

With strong determination and perseverance, they have developed the company to become the largest Italian wine importer in China in 2018, which has remained that way since then.

凭借强大的决心和毅力，他们公司在2018年成为了中国最大的意大利葡萄酒进口商，并一直保持至今。

“I still remember that in 2018 we had quite a big party here in Shenzhen to celebrate that we imported 100 40-foot containers in China within one year for the first time. Then from 2018, every year we have achieved growth,” Mugnano said.

“我还记得，2018年那年我们在深圳举办了一场盛大的庆典，庆祝我们首次在一年内进口了100个40英尺集装箱的葡萄酒到中国市场。然后从2018年开始，每一年我们都实现了增长。”Mugnano说。

Alessandro Mugnano communicates with employees.

Alessandro Mugnano和员工交流。

Over the last four to five years, the Chinese wine market has changed a lot in terms of quality and the product’s average unit price has tripled compared to that of five years ago. “We have not only increased a lot in terms of sales volume, but also in terms of quality. In the last three years we have imported 180 40-foot containers every year, which is the largest number for an Italian wine company in China,” Mugnano proudly said.

在过去的四五年时间里，中国葡萄酒市场在质量方面发生了很大的变化，产品的平均单价比五年前翻了三倍。“我们不仅销售量增长了很多，在质量方面也变得越来越好。在过去三年中，我们每年都进口180个40英尺集装箱的葡萄酒，这是意大利葡萄酒公司在中国的最大进口量。”Mugnano自豪地说。

Some wines exhibited in their office.

他们办公室展示的一些葡萄酒。

The pandemic does not let anyone off, including Italian wine importers.

疫情给所有人都带来了影响，意大利葡萄酒进口商也不例外。

“The pandemic affects everything, including our daily social life. At the very beginning, it has been very difficult to deal with, but at the same time we, together with my team, developed a customized strategy to overcome it,” Mugnano said.

“疫情影响到一切，包括我们的日常社交生活。在最开始的时候，应对起来有点棘手，但与此同时，我们和团队一起开发了特定的策略来克服重重困难。” Mugnano说道。

Despite the pandemic, their wine business achieved a 2% growth year on year in 2020 and 21% in 2021.

疫情之下，他们的葡萄酒业务在2020年仍然实现了2%的同比增长，在2021年则实现了21%的同比增长。

Alessandro Mugnano in his office.

Alessandro Mugnano在办公室。

“Behind any big crisis, there are always great opportunities. So, what we did during this time, and the reason why we have achieved growth in such a difficult moment, is to keep investing, to keep having double efforts, and at the same time, to be the first in line to grab all of the new opportunities found in the market,” Mugnano said.

“每场危机的背后，总是蕴藏着很多机会。所以，我们在此期间做的就是不断投资，加倍努力，并成为第一个抓住市场上所有新机会的人，这也是我们业务实现增长的原因。”Mugnano说道。

During the pandemic, one of the most affected was the horeca (hotel, restaurant, café) channel. To cope with this, the company diversified their strategy and channels.

疫情期间，最受影响的一个方面就是餐饮酒店渠道。为此，他们公司制定了多样化的策略，并开拓了多个渠道。

Alessandro Mugnano (L) and Ferdinando Rizzo (R) pose for a photo with a client at a wine tasting event June 8. Courtesy of the interviewees.

Alessandro Mugnano（左）和Ferdinando Rizzo（右）与在6月8日的葡萄酒品鉴会上与客户合影。

“It’s true that some channels like restaurants were forced to close, but one of the greatest advantages in China is that we can sell wine in many other different channels. What we developed during this time is our sister company called Alawino, which focuses on online business. We are present in all the main marketplaces, then we started to develop social media channels for Italian wineries going from WeChat to Weibo to the Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu). That’s the reason why we made these happen in such short time,” Mugnano explained.

“像餐厅这样的渠道可能被迫关闭了，但在中国最大的优势之一是我们可以在许多其他渠道销售葡萄酒。在这期间，我们建立了我们的姐妹公司：啊啦叮酒业，专注于线上业务。现在所有主要的线上购物平台都有我们，之后我们又开始为意大利酒庄代运营中国本土的社交媒体渠道，包括微信、微博和小红书。这就是为什么我们能在如此短的时间内实现增长。”Mugnano解释说。

Palmentieri added that another key point to their success is they have invested a lot of money to teach their team how to sell. They also successfully organized another wine tasting event June 8.

Palmentieri补充说，他们成功的另一个关键因素是投入了大量的资金来提升团队的销售技能。他们还在6月8日成功地再次举办了一次大型的葡萄酒品鉴会。

(From L) Enrico Palmentieri, Diego Di Costanzo and Alessandro Mugnano pose for a photo in the Italian restaurant Il Faro.

（左起）Enrico Palmentieri、Diego Di Costanzo和Alessandro Mugnano在Il Faro意大利灯塔餐吧合影。

In addition to their ever-growning wine business, they accepted the invitation from chef Diego Di Costanzo to bring to Shenzhen a three-generation Italian restaurant in Napoli and opened an Italian restaurant named Il Faro in Shekou in March. The restaurant offers authentic Italian pizzas and other mouth-watering Italian food.

除了葡萄酒业务持续增长，受厨师Diego Di Costanzo之邀，他们还携手将那不勒斯三代传承的意大利餐厅品牌带到了深圳，于3月在蛇口开设了一家名为Il Faro意大利灯塔餐吧。餐厅提供正宗的意大利披萨和其他令人垂涎的意大利美食。

Diego Di Costanzo prepares a pizza.

Diego Di Costanzo准备好了一个披萨。

One funny anecdote was that the restaurant was opened one day before the city was locked down for one week in March. “So, we waited for a couple of weeks and we started with the delivery and then later on, after two or three weeks, we opened it for dine-in service in April. I have to say that we are very happy about the business, thanks to the support of a lot of friends and customers,” Mugnano said.

好巧不巧，受疫情影响，深圳3月份实行全市静默一周，餐厅就在此前一天开业。“所以，我们等了几个星期，在这期间开始送外卖，后来，两三个星期后，在4月份我们开放了堂食服务。我不得不说，由于很多朋友和顾客的支持，我们的生意运营良好，对此我们非常满意。”Mugnano说。

With the restaurant’s success, Mugnano and his partners are planning to open another branch in Luohu by the end of this month.

随着餐厅的成功，Mugnano和他的合伙人正计划在本月底在罗湖开设另一家分店。

When Mugnano was interviewed by Shenzhen Daily in 2019, he said China was the future. Three years after, the Italian entrepreneur reiterated his strong confidence in the Chinese market.

2019年Mugnano接受英文《深圳日报》采访时说，中国就是未来。三年后的今天，这位意大利企业家再次表达了他对中国市场的十足信心。

“Now in 2022, I’m happy to tell you that I’m double confident than 2019. How this country carries out the control and prevention of the pandemic while developing its economy at the same time is something that really impressed us. A lot of countries worldwide will take years to overcome the impact of the pandemic. China did it in the fastest way and gives us a confidence to develop and to grab all the new opportunities that this market gives us,” Mugnano said.

“现在到了2022年，我很高兴地告诉你们，相比2019年，我对中国市场有了双倍的信心。这个国家疫情防控和经济发展两手抓的做法给我们留下了深深的印象，世界上很多国家可能要花好几年的时间才能真的从疫情中恢复过来。中国以最快的方式做到了这一点，这给我们带来了很大的信心，让我们去发展并抓住这个市场给我们带来的所有新机会。”Mugnano说。

A view of Shenzhen.

深圳一景。

For them, the company’s growth speed is the epitome of Shenzhen speed. “Shenzhen is a young and dynamic city with a fast development speed. I still remember it 12 years ago, which was far away from the Shenzhen today. I am so proud to come here,” Mugnano said.

对他们来说，公司的发展速度就是深圳速度的缩影。“深圳是一座年轻的活力之都，发展速度极快。我还记得12年前的深圳，那时的深圳跟今天的深圳相差很大。我很荣幸能够来到深圳。”Mugnano说道。

For Palmentieri, Shenzhen is a city where every kind of companies wants to be. “I think Shenzhen is the place where people and their ideas can really grow up together. People come from everywhere, not only from China, but also from overseas. We are here in Shenzhen, and we really want to stay here to grow. We really trust in the Chinese market. We really trust in Shenzhen. We really trust in China,” he added.

对Palmentieri来说，深圳是一座每个公司都想到来的城市。“我觉得，深圳是一个人们可以和梦想一起成长的地方。这里的人们来自五湖四海，不仅来自中国各地，也来自世界各地。我们现在在深圳，也很希望能够也一直留在这里成长。我们真的相信中国市场，我们真的相信深圳，我们真的相信中国。”他补充说。

Enrico Palmentieri (L) and Alessandro Mugnano have a toast at Il Faro.

Enrico Palmentieri（左）和Alessandro Mugnano在Il Faro意大利灯塔餐吧祝酒。

For their future, they want to remain the top Italian wine importer in China. “Now our goal is to stay on top for many years, which is the most difficult thing. Because everybody can reach the top, but to stay on top for many years, to be stable and then to lead the market for many consecutive years is difficult,” Mugnano said.

未来，他们希望稳居中国最大意大利葡萄酒进口商的地位。“现在我们的目标是保持多年的第一，这是最困难的事情。因为每个人都可以做到第一，但要保持多年的第一，保持稳定，并连续多年引领市场是很难的。”Mugnano说。