Wahed Khan, who owns an export-focused wine brand in Robertson with his wife, Bunty, has been appointed the new non-executive board chair of Wines of South Africa (WoSA).
Khan, who has a background in finance and operations, has been a member of WoSA’s board since 2020. Said WoSA CEO Siobhan Thompson: “Wahed brings wide-ranging skills and experience in production, operations, market development and culture change and management. His focus is on conceiving and executing strategies designed to enhance value-chain integration.
“He combines business acumen with personal integrity, compassion and optimism, and is very generous in sharing his knowledge.”
Khan left the packaging sector, where he built his reputation on large-scale turnaround projects, to enter the wine industry in 2012. He did so to join his wife in Cape Dreams Wines, the venture that she had established just a few years earlier and was ready to expand.
The couple currently exports to 20 countries worldwide with a footprint across well-established and nascent wine markets, targeting on-consumption, retail and e-commerce channels. Cape Dreams featured on Tim Atkin’s MW 2021 South Africa Special Report roll of honour, when its Chardonnay was rated the country’s Best Value White.
He said the confidence and trust the WoSA board had expressed in him was “a great honour but equally, a great responsibility. I hope to contribute to wine industry growth, stability, and sustainability by prioritising end-to-end integration of the value chain.”
He stressed value-driven transformation would form a strong part of the focus.
“South Africa’s wine industry has made significant headway in becoming more demand-driven and customer-centric, and more economically and socially inclusive, but there is still urgent work to be done all round to enhance our agility.
“Internationally, wine consumption is entering a new momentum as consumers gravitate towards more mindful drinking for reasons of personal health, environmental impact, and ethical awareness. Wine lovers are drinking less but better.
“To enhance our position and competitiveness in the global market, we need to reimagine our industry as one entire value chain competing against the similarly integrated value chains of each of our competitor countries.”