Thirty-seven years after he was poached from the sweets business to join what was then a “Mickey Mouse” little operation in the Big Smoke, DGB executive chairman Tim Hutchinson has been recognised at a Wine Harvest commemorative event in Constantia for his immense contribution to South African wine.

Durban-born-and-raised, Hutchinson started his career as a trainee in marketing and sales at SA Breweries, before joining the Zulmans at Beacon Sweets, where he spent “a number of years, working for a lovely family”. 

Then, Pick n Pay executive Peter Dove called him about a little wine business, Douglas Green of Paarl, owned by Sol Kerzner’s Kersaf Liquor.

“He said, ‘they want someone who understands consumer goods brands’. The wine industry was production-orientated in those days and not too good on sales and marketing, so they wanted me. The negative thing was that I had to move to Johannesburg from Durban. 

“When I got there, I realised it was a Mickey Mouse little business that didn’t even have its own winery. My wife wasn’t impressed but I had given people my word.”

In 1990, Hutchinson was appointed CEO and DGB was established through the merger of Union Wine (Bellingham & Culemborg) and Douglas Green, enabled by his long-time friend and mentor, Graham Beck. Eight years later, Hutchinson led a management buyout of DGB, with Beck retaining a 20% shareholding. 

“Graham said he’d like to stay in the business for 20% of the equity. He was obviously well-known in the financial, mining and horse-racing world. No one knew who the hell I was. So when I told people, Graham was my partner, the bank manager would talk to me,” he joked. 

Hutchinson was obsessed with making the business successful. At face value, it didn’t look like much. When they merged into DGB, Ronnie Melck, the MD of what was then the Stellenbosch Farmers Winery and owner of Muratie, joked that they were “two cripples, in one wheelchair. We became great friends”.

“I decided that one day, DGB will become a highly respected player in the top sector of the wine industry. And I guess we’ve achieved that: last year, we sold over 5 million cases of wine around the world.”

DGB now has offices in each of South Africa’s key markets: the UK, Holland, Germany, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, China and Dubai, distributing its own wines.

In South Africa, they sell Vergelegen and Kanonkop wines, and distribute Jagermeister, The Macallan, Famous Grouse and Angostura Bitters, alongside their own locally produced spirits ranges including Zappa Sambuca, Butlers Liqueurs and Tang.

What they don’t export is bulk wine. “It’s terrible for South Africa because a lot of our wine overseas is bulk. Once the bulk wine leaves here, it ends up in Germany or England where you don’t know what it’s blended with, often cheap Spanish plonk. It’s not good for brands. We don’t want to be known for cheap-and-cheerful wines abroad.”

The route to market is what separates the bit-players from the operators, which is why nurturing relationships is so important: “Many of the businesses we deal with today are family businesses. I first dealt with the parents, now I’m dealing with their children. These are longstanding relationships.” DM