Absa renews Pinotage sponsorship

On 21 July Absa and the Pinotage Association (PA) renewed their commitment to each other by signing a five-year sponsorship of R1 million per year. Pinotage is a proudly born-and-bred African wine and for this reason Dr Steve Booysen, Absa’s Group Chief Executive, was very proud to associate the bank with the grape. Together the parties will support and promote this wine locally and internationally. Absa the sole sponsor of Pinotage “If it were not for Absa, we would still be in the experimental phases with Pinotage,” said Beyers Truter, chairperson of the PA. With this agreement Absa becomes the sole sponsor of Pinotage. The bank and the PA will embark on an ambitious promotional and media drive to capitalise on past success and take the brand to the next level. Programmes will focus on the positioning of Pinotage for 2010. They include a project with Absa Art later this year and an exciting Food and Wine programme in 2008. “We are committed to applying the bank’s considerable resources to firmly establish Pinotage in the local and international market,” Booysen said. “It is particularly important to us that all South Africans are made aware that this is our very own unique cultivar.” – Susan Botes