Taking on the world: Marita Corra from Inland Trading Co.
Sitting down with Marita Corra is a fascinating experience. Elegantly dressed and filled with an excited energy, it’s hard not to get inspired by the story of Inland Trading Co – Australia’s largest privately-owned exporter of wine.
To go from selling six cases to Singapore in the mid-90s to a company that exports to 58 countries, the success is undeniable. What’s more extraordinary is that most of this happened from the quiet village of Wamboin (just outside of Queanbeyan).
The Shaker met with Marita to discuss the risks of starting the business, the success that followed, and the challenges of running an international business from Canberra.
Where did it all begin for Inland Trading Co?
It was an interesting process. I was a school principal and my husband, Greg, was an international commodities trader. In the mid-1990s, we really wanted our own business so, of all things, we started a fruit juice company! In those early days it was largely a hobby that we worked on largely in our spare time.
Singapore was our initial focus. To us, domestic sales were never going to work, but attacking a mature and comparatively wealthy Asian country seemed a much better strategy: no-one was really looking over there at the time.
We worked through producers in Mildura… and that went pretty well. However, after two years we saw the opportunity that wine represented, and made the switch comparatively early in the life of the business.
It was a pretty quick decision, we were out to dinner with some of our juice buyers, and had brought some Australian wines to enjoy. They were a couple of pretty good bottles (we were certainly out to impress!), and everyone at the table had a great meal.
At the end, the buyer asked if they could get wine instead of juice! From that moment our future path was set.
When did you decide to take the plunge into making Inland Trading a full-time concern.
It wasn’t long after the dinner. That was the moment we realised there was a potentially great revenue stream, and that we could perhaps leave our day jobs. It was definitely scary… we had very little revenue and young kids, so things were very tight. That made us so hungry, though…. we absolutely had to succeed!
What was it like in the early days?
Not only was it terrifying, it was really difficult. We had to walk around and knock on winery doors and try to convince them of our product. The producers had no idea of who we were, and no reason to sell to us. We simply had to convince them that it was worth the risk to give Inland Trading Co a chance.
Interestingly, Tim Kirk (Clonakilla) was our second wholesaler… and we’re still working with him today. It’s amazing that they put faith in us back then, and I love that we’ve been able to maintain the relationship.
For the first five years it ran on a shoe-string. We had no luck getting investment or funding from the banks, so we had to grow quite organically.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that we actually had an office and took on staff. That was a really big moment – largely because Greg and I knew the business so well that it was hard to relinquish some of that control.
Having an office and staff brought a whole new set of overheads; it was a big step for the business to manage. Of course, if you don’t take those risks then it’s hard for the business to grow, but it doesn’t make it any less scary.
Is that sense of control a positive or a negative for a growing business?
(laughs) Both! It certainly doesn’t help when you are trying to place faith in people and assign roles and responsibilities.
Inland Trading Co currently has eight staff. While they all possess the right skill sets for their position, Greg and I still have to restrain ourselves from jumping in and giving them the quick answers we have learned from experience over the last two decades.
However, it’s a great backstop. If a person in a particular role decides to up and leave, well… we can kind of step in as a stop-gap until the position is filled. There’s little chance of the business falling over as a result of changes in our workforce.
What was difficult about selling Australian wine overseas?
The biggest barrier we had – and keep in mind that this was in the late ’90s – was that very few people overseas knew about the product. The Asian market was heavily influenced by the French styles, and USA, Canada, UK and Europe had long-established wine industries with plenty of supply.
This meant that we were taking a new product to business. There were no websites and email was in its infancy. Our main strategy was to travel… A LOT. We had to simply go door-to-door and attend trade shows to explain Australian wines and start building relationships. No-one else was there!
The first big win was forging really strong relationships with the big hotels… The Hyatt, Hilton, etc. By teaming up with the Food & Beverage managers not only were we able to get product into very high-profile venues, but we then went with them when they moved to a different venue, and we simply had to manage the previous hotel and introduce ourselves to the new F&B manager. That led to some early success.
Which market has been the toughest to crack?
A market that proved difficult – but ultimately successful – was Canada. The regulatory framework is really complex. A potential Canadian buyer can’t simply say, “I want Wine X from Australian.” Rather, the purchasing has to be done through the Canadian Liquor Board.
This means that we have to get ‘listings’. We send over stock and it is tasted and tested and, if we are lucky enough, we get a place on a list of authorised suppliers. While this is beginning to loosen, it’s very different to almost anywhere else…
Excitingly, as of about six weeks ago, we were one of the first to export wine into Myanmar! They’ve just begun allowing the importation of alcohol, and Inland Trading Co is right at the head of the queue.
It took us nine months… but we're in there!
Two markets that we don’t work with is the UK and the US. There are too many big players, and our boutique suppliers are just not structured for those markets. India remains really difficult and will remain a work-in-progress for a while.
Click here to read Part II of our interview with Marita Corra