New email address

WE HAVE A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS

Please note that our new email address is -

info@completelycompeta.com

Please use this address for all contact with Completely Cómpeta

EU agrees major wine sector shakeup - will Cómpeta be affected?

After a three-day marathon of tough negotiations, the 27-nation EU has agreed a major shake-up of its troubled wine sector, aimed at winning back consumers and market shares lost to the "new world" wines.

"In the long term we were heading for the abyss", Portuguese agriculture minister Jaime Silva said on Wednesday (19 December), after EU ministers struck a deal.

According to EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, the reform's architect, "instead of spending much of our budget getting rid of unwanted surpluses, we can now concentrate on taking on our competitors and winning back market share".

She admitted, however, that "we [the European Commission] didn't get everything we wanted, but we have ended up with a well-balanced agreement. I hope the Member States will make good use of the new tools available".

Under the reform package, the bloc's wine industry should shrink by grubbing-up 175,000 hectares of vineyards over a three-year period of time, although the grubbing-up scheme will be voluntary.

Brussels hopes that unprofitable growers will leave the sector and those ones willing to do so will be offered a grubbing-up premium - a financial bonus, highest during the first year of the reform, while subsequently decreasing during the next two years.

On the other hand, current restrictions on planting rights will be lifted from 2015, with the possibility to prolong them at a national level until 2018, and allow competitive wine producers to expand their production.

The EU is the world's number one producer, exporter and consumer of wine, but it is facing increasing competition from "new world" wines from the US, Argentina, China, Australia, South Africa and Chile.

Wine consumption in Europe is falling steadily, while imports of wines are growing much faster than exports.

On current trends, excess wine production is expected to reach 15 percent of annual production by the end of this decade - something that would mean an enormous burden for EU coffers. The union already spends around half a billion euro a year just getting rid of surplus wine for which there is no market.

Several key points of the reform package tabled by commissioner Fischer Boel have been toned down, however, such as her attempt to ban the use of sugar for enriching wine.

Under the compromise deal, enrichment with sugar will continue to be allowed, but maximum levels are to be reduced. Northern vine-dressers such as Luxembourg, Germany, Austria or Slovakia were particularly against the ban, as they have less sunny weather compared to the southern states.

The south itself has secured that aid for the use of must - a sweetener used in that part of the continent - will be abolished only in four years, not immediately as required by the commission.

New member states, which joined the EU in 2004 and 2007, have won a fairer system of distribution of the EU money among capitals, something known as national financial envelopes.

These will allow EU states to adapt measures according to their particular situation, such as promotion in third countries, vineyard restructuring or innovation.

The reform of the wine sector - employing almost two-and-a-half million Europeans - will enter into force in August next year.


© 2007 EUobserver, All rights reserved

What do you think might be the effect on Cómpeta? - send your comments to us using the 'Comment' link below

New date for first meeting

After months of careful planning and research the first date for a meeting of Completely Cómpeta has been set.

It is Thursday 24th January 2008 - 7pm - Salon de Actos - Ayuntamiento de Cómpeta

Watch this weblog for more information

In the meantime you can email us at info@completelycompeta.com

© 2007, Image & Profile

Cómpeta Christmas Market 2007

Cómpeta Business Directory

We are beginning the process of putting together the first comprehensive Directory of businesses in Cómpeta.

The amount of information available is very poor at present and this is going to make the job all that more harder.

You can help by sending us your details to info@completelycompeta.com

The information we need is -

Business name; contact name of person in the business; business address; telephone number; email address; website URL (if you have one).

Thanks for your help.

© 2007, Image & Profile

The Way Forward for Completely Cómpeta

Following the web post the other day about the idea behind Completely Cómpeta, today we have a look at some of the things that have to be done to make it happen -

Publicise information about the proposed new organisation

• Press releases to all newspapers, magazines beginning September 2007
• Gain radio & TV ‘airtime’ from September onwards
• Use ‘Voz de Cómpeta’ to inform local businesses
• Send/deliver letter or email to ‘all’ businesses in the area


Invite all businesses to a meeting to discuss proposal

• arrange & call meeting in Salon de Actos for w/c 5th November

• agree format of meeting & prepare materials

• create 'steering committee' to develop strategy


Create a web ‘presence’

• weblog already created & visible at www.completelycompeta.blogspot.com

• publicise weblog & any other web presence in all publicity material


Formalise ‘Completely Cómpeta’ as an organisation

• create formal structure for ‘Completely Cómpeta’
• agree management of organisation
• propose financial structure
• agree legal format etc.


Identify & seek external funding for organisation

• use existing Ayuntamiento funding structures
• investigate & identify European funding opportunities

© 2007, Image & Profile

So what are the benefits to having Completely Cómpeta?

Image & Profile has recently submitted an outline proposal to the Ayuntamiento for the formal creation of Completely Cómpeta, and the following is an extract from the proposal which looks at the question of what the benefits of such an organisation might be -

Background
It is generally acknowledged that there is a need to develop some form of business initiative which will serve to create a single marketing and tourism focus within Cómpeta. Currently, businesses work in isolation of one another, or any collaboration that there is, is ad hoc and usually based upon friendships eg. a builder has a friend who is a plumber; a shopkeeper knows who sells a particular product that they don’t etc.

If Cómpeta is to move forward and sustain its business & tourism offering, then there is a real need to create a marketing ‘brand’ to which businesses of all types can subscribe, and which can be used in all promotional activity that is undertaken, either by the Ayuntamiento through its publicity, its attendance at exhibitions etc., or by individual businesses through their own publicity & marketing.

The benefits of this approach are –

• a single unified ‘brand’ with use of logos etc. which will become recognised by residents and visitors alike;

• economies of scale by businesses coming together to share resources such as publicity material, point of sale materials (bags; swing tickets etc.);

• an opportunity for all businesses to be represented in a wider promotional marketplace eg. exhibitions, which would under normal circumstances be beyond them, often in terms of cost;

• a shared identity with other businesses and with the local town hall, and other public sector organisations

• creation of a comprehensive directory of Cómpeta based businesses

In another web post we will look at the things that have to be done to make this all happen.

© 2007, Image & Profile

Introducing Completely Cómpeta

COMPLETELY CÓMPETA is a private sector based marketing initiative designed to bring together all businesses in the Cómpeta area, to collectively market themselves all under one banner.

The need to raise the profile of both an individual business and of different business sectors is a fundamental part of making sure that visitors and residents in the Cómpeta area are aware of the many different and diverse businesses that exist and which are seeking their support.

For a business to undertake any form of marketing can be a costly exercise, and often takes up a lot of time and effort, leading sometimes to a decision not to market at all, but to concentrate on the core business.

By joining together, and undertaking marketing all under one banner, will mean that businesses can become part of a marketing campaign, but not always have to devote large amounts of time to it.

Equally, a visitor to the village and surrounding area will be able to see that a business is part of the COMPLETELY CÓMPETA group, and begin to recognise the way in which businesses are working together. Eventually, the use of the COMPLETELY CÓMPETA logo, might become a symbol of quality.

Looking into the future, it would be hoped that COMPLETELY CÓMPETA would be able to represent local businesses at major exhibitions and events both in Spain and elsewhere, to bring the area to the notice of both tourists and other businesses perhaps looking for a business opportunity.

The initiative will of course need some money to run itself, and this would initially be raised by businesses paying an annual membership fee, which as well as allowing the organisation to develop, would give individual benefits to each and every member business, including use of the COMPLETELY CÓMPETA logo, giving instant recognition to visitors and residents alike.

It also hoped that the Ayuntamiento and other public sector bodies might want to support the initiative, and in the long term, it is hoped to be able to attract other sponsorship and funding.

Finally, you are probably wondering who is behind this initiative, and what their credentials are. Well, COMPLETELY CÓMPETA is being championed by Image & Profile, a Cómpeta based public relations, marketing and event management company. The owner of the company has extensive knowledge of running membership based organisations, including having been the Chief Executive of a Chamber of Commerce in the UK, and also being involved in a body similar to COMPLETELY CÓMPETA, whilst living in Cumbria, England.

So, if you are interested in finding out more about COMPLETELY CÓMPETA, or simply registering an interest please call 952 516 152 or email: info@completelycompeta.com and you could become part of a new and exciting development in the business community that is COMPLETELY CÓMPETA.

© 2007, Image & Profile