MICHAEL FRIDJHON: The rebirth of SA’s brandy industry
Out of the wreckage of the old volume industry has emerged a smaller, high-value, more sophisticated business
Very little in SA escapes the peaks and troughs we who inhabit the southernmost country on the African continent regard as a way of life. We move from boom to bust and back to boom again without the panicked anxiety that afflicts those who live in less fraught places. The fact that the presentation of the national budget was postponed at the last moment without more than the merest ripple of concern in the markets says either that we are made of sterner stuff than our northern hemisphere counterparts or we are too shell-shocked to care.
This is not necessarily true of all sectors of the economy. Fluctuations in fashion play havoc with the way those who are victims of these movements feel about the universe. If, for example, you had been a brandy producer in the heyday of that particular segment of the wine industry, you might now be feeling rightly aggrieved at how trends largely beyond your control have enabled other beverages to erode your prospects...
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