Wine Freedom - Vinfrihet

When the former dairy queen now rabid lådvin monopolist Magdalena Gerger started her illegal and morally indefensible campaign against legal operators of wine clubs, she must had one too many glasses of Chill Out. Because she either ignored or failed to realise one thing.

I have mentioned this before on this blog but I am not an EU law Professor. While Gerger and IOGT-NTO are encouraging children to act fraudelently and searching for TV exposure, they are inadvertently doing the work of the anti-monopolists.

For all the people in Sweden who would like to end the alcohol monopoly, no one has done more than the highly paid Systembolaget CEO Gerger.

In today’s Svenska Dagbladet national newspaper, Sweden’s leading EU Law Professor Ulf Bernitz (Stockholm & Oxford Universities) wrote what can best be called the “pre” obituary of the monopoly. Or at least a stark warning for Systembolaget’s owners and board of directors that their renegade CEO has a self destructive agenda.

Under the headline “E-commerce can bring down the monopoly” Professor Bernitz explained what I had been claiming – the right to have a monopoly exists because it restricts access to the alcohol. If Gerger makes it so readily available the reason for having a monopoly disappears.

This has been tested in the EU Courts twice. Gerger obviously wants to use the tax payers’ money to test it again and this time, according to Professor Bernitz, could be the last song for the bag in box monopolists.

Gerger has called in a lot of favours to get respectable people to support her campaign and has the anti-alcohol group IOGT-NTO following her around carrying her Blackberry. I wonder how many of these will be her friend if she is the final CEO of the monopoly? She may need her old contacts at the dairy so they have something to drink at the wake!

Finally Friday!
Mark

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Sunday night on SVT’s Agenda program, finally the spotlight was put on the serious consequences of Systembolaget offering booze, bag in box and beer delivered home. (see the interview on SVT Play, 27 November)

Why it took so long for this issue to be taken up demonstrates the power of the monopoly PR machine and how effective they have been silencing their usual critics, such as IOGT-NTO.

Professor Anders Romelsjö from Karolinska Institute and SoRAD is a leading researcher in the field of alcohol’s health effects and clearly explained why home delivery will significantly increase alcohol abuse and also be the first spade in digging the grave for the monopoly.

Magdalena Gerger, head of the monopoly, was interviewed at the end of their pre-prepared segment and had nothing to say. Well, she dodged answering the questions and sounded very sympathetic to the concerns of people living with alcohol abuse but gave not one single vodka shot full of reasons why they should start home delivery despite the obvious serious community health implications.

Gerger mentioned that price is the main preventative measure for alcohol consumption. But that was not Sweden’s argument when it asked for the monopoly in 1995. Restricting access to alcohol has been proven to be #1 and price #2. As governments set the alcohol tax and VAT levels (and Sweden has lower alcohol prices than UK, Norway, Ireland and Iceland), Systembolaget’s responsibility is to make it harder to get access to booze, beer and bag in box (among other things in their range).

If Gerger throws out the restrictive access argument she is abandoning the legal reason for the monopoly’s existence.

So, fast forward a few years and Gerger is going to have the EU High Court knocking on her door along with her bag in box home delivery! Hello home delivery, goodbye monopoly!

Cheers
Mark

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We are Systembolaget’s largest legal competitor. Legal according to Swedish and EU law.

Systembolaget has a monopoly on retail store sales of alcohol in Sweden.

The past two weeks has proven that Systembolaget and their CEO Magdalena Gerger have no legal or moral boundaries when it comes to defending Systembolaget’s dominant market position.

Including breaking the law and trashing the reputation of IOGT-NTO the temperance organisation by using them as their goalkeeper and doer of dirty deeds.

10 days ago IOGT-NTO made headlines by reporting 3 German based tax cheats, our company and 6 other wine club operators for breaking the law. I didn’t like having our activities reported to the police and specially not lumped in with the German tax cheats whom they know the police have no jurisdiction over anyway.

Today DN has confirmed that Systembolaget and their lawyers were behind the IOGT-NTO police complaint. http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/systembolaget-anklagas-for-att-ligga-bakom-polisanmalan

Some facts:

1. Systembolaget are the dominant market player and we their largest competitor.

2. Systembolaget wants to start home delivery and knows that the community health implications of doing this are HUGE.

3. Systembolaget tries to neutralise its critics to home delivery by galvanizing them against a benign force, the small companies selling quality wine, legally, home to wine appreciative Swedes.

4. As the dominant market players Systembolaget can not harass, attack or use anti-competitive behaviour against its competitors. Legal action against them will follow.

5. Systembolaget’s monopoly does not cover home delivery. If they start home delivery so can any other company from within or outside of Sweden.

Systembolaget, with the assistance of their goalkeeper friends at IOGT-NTO, are abusing their market position and breaking several Swedish and EU laws.

By pushing so quickly ahead with home delivery, unchecked by any government departments, they are being allowed to risk doing so much harm to community health their next step may as well be allowing in alco pops and bag in box vodka.

See www.antipodeswines.com to download our legal response to the police complaint.

Follow what The Local has written about the scandal. Have your say on my blog or on this article.

If you believe in Wine Freedom, don’t let them destroy what is good to do something bad.

Mark

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Somethings are hard to explain to yourself, let alone to your curious kids. Three recent events have caused a bit of head-shaking.

Why why why we asked when reading about that poor 11 year old girl who was kicked off the SJ train to Göteborg a week or so ago because she supposedly has no ticket (her 22 year old sister had the tickets but was in the toilet at the time). Why didn’t she protest, why didn’t another passenger step in to help her, why didn’t the sister go looking for her, why didn’t the young girl ask someone to call her parents, specially the old lady who came to her rescue and gave her a meal and bed fo the night. And why did this saviour wait until the morning to call the police or the girl’s parents?

I asked our 9 and 11 year olds what they would do if they were lost from us: “Find another mummy or daddy and ask them to call you.”

What the bloody heck…..why are British police helpless when hooligans take to the streets to destroy people’s lives, homes and businesses? What type of society do the Poms live in where people have no respect for their neighbours, authority and the law and if they see a broken window of a store they are compelled steal something or set it alight.

Walking to our office today I saw a woman of around 70 years old walk up to the ATM machine on Karlavägen, take out the receipt someone had left there and throw it on the floor. I stopped, picked it up off the floor and put it in the bin 30 cm from the ATM. “You are brave” she commented. Why would someone litter their own streets and why not be ashamed when caught doing it.

How to explain the strange anti social behaviour of so many people!

Have a great weekend,
Cheers
Mark

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It has been the longest most relaxed summer vacation since we moved to Sweden 10 years ago. In hindsight we should have stayed home in Stockholm if we were chasing the sun but our short 3-4 day trips south satisfied our need for the company of nearest and dearest.

Avoiding air transport this summer (for car and train) meant we could take our own wine and I am not embarrassed to say, my pillow. This has been a summer of Riesling Piemonte wines and either through luck or skill there have been many highlights and no disappointments. Understanding the German labels has helped avoiding matching a sweet wine with the sushi and the Barbera d’Asti and Barbera d’Alba were bargain finds among the smart Italians we drunk.

A work trip to Malta after mid summer had us staying at the Westin and when I called House Keeping to ask for a firm pillow I was referred to the “Pillow Menu” to select which of the 12 different ones I preferred (I think it was 12, could have been 22, one loses count of the different types of pillows after 3 – soft, medium and hard!). In Copenhagen at the Tivoli Hotel they had those soft flat pillows that substitute for those things you put next to doors to stop drafts coming in. When I called to ask for a firm pillow I was referred to the “Pillow Menu”. Just kidding, they told me soft flat was all they had! Given that the Tivoli hotel cost 3x the Westin in Malta I am glad we have our business meetings there and not in CPH.

Now we are working in our new temporary office in Gärdet, easily reached by buses 1 & 72 which has opened up a whole new world of public transport for me. Commuting from home and also between the offices is going to make my SL Kort bus card the best investment of this coming autumn.

Great to be back at work and face the exciting challenges of HT 2011.
Cheers
Mark

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Our head office could be in a worse location for this time of year when the weather is so unpredictable. So when part of our senior management team decamped to Malta last week for budget planning sessions (and a board meeting) a long day stuck inside was paid back bo a refreshing dip in the Med. The week after midsommar is one of the most under appreciated weeks of the year – summer vacation has not yet really started, most of the pre-summer tasks are completed so mind space can be made for planning for the year ahead.

When Christmas and summer vacations do not coincide (as I am used to) there are two rather than one major breakpoint in the year. Preparing for vacation is a major activity, everyone wants to clear their desk literally and figuratively. This summer desks are being packed up as we prepare for our move to a temporary office on Friday. The administration is departing Grevgatan 55 for Gärdet to give more space and air to the Wine Advisors and Customer Service teams.

It has been a hectic first half of 2011 with the market for the direct sales of wine growing exponentially. New competition has helped expand the market and raise awareness for our services as well as the enormous marketing reach of Bonnier for their own wine clubs. If there are no Euro financial crises, Japanese natural disasters and pending interest rate hikes in the autumn we expect the year to be another great one!

Soon it will be summer vacation time. Batteries to be recharged, books read, the to-do-around-the-house list ticked off and catching up with friends old and new!

Cheers!
Mark

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Tonight is the company’s summer party. Wine, food and entertainment is organised, just hope the weather is on our side as we optimistically will be outside!

After 7 years with APW James Overall is leaving to follow his heart and while ours is sad we are happy for him. So tonight we celebrate the summer, our past 6 months of success and salute James and his enormous contribution to our company’s development. He was employee number 1 and the only member of our management team to have left us in 7 years.

Time to don the summer clothes (and jacket) and head down to the party by the water!

Cheers
Mark

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What type of music will Jens play and will Miriam’s father-chef embarrass her catering for the company’s summer party on Thursday night? Fortunately Erika found the appropriate dress to carry out the duties of Toast Master confidently and Madelen is having a hard time managing the guest numbers as she keeps hiring new people.

The sprint to summer awakens the dormant social beast within us and planning the company’s summer party has been an important part of my work lately. Not that I am given much responsibility (the rest of the organising committee, it seems, think that my age disqualifies me from knowing how to put on a good party) but “trying” to help is important to me.

Knowing everyone who works at APW is top of my job description. Hiring them is a long and thorough process but I have to continually ask myself (and our senior managers) would we hire them again? And given the time over again, would they choose to work for us?

2kg is the result of my spring campaign to have lunch with every member of the APW team but some extra summer exercise is a price worth paying. What are we doing right, what can we do better, what are their career ambitions and does APW feature in them?

I may never eat grilled tuna caesar salad again (I really should vary the restaurant I go to) but I certainly would re-hire everyone again and they are also committed to the company and proud of their contribution to it.

Two concrete actions resulting from the lunches has been Niclas and Erik were transferred from Wine Advisors to Marketing roles, putting to use their university educations and bringing indepth and invaluable customer knowledge to our marketing activities.

Isabelle, Jonas and Gen have returned from their world travels to work as wine advisors, great to have them back on the team again.

I wish all of them every success in their new roles and am proud that they re-chose APW.

Cheers
Mark

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