Industry facing skill set shortage

The wine industry is facing a worrying shortage of high quality national account managers, according to Paul Schaafsma, general manager for UK and Europe at Australian Vintage. Schaafsma has called on the industry to work together to introduce an accredited training program to help nurture young talent in order to reverse the decline. Speaking to the drinks business at last week’s A+ Australia tasting in London, Schaafsma said: “One of the main challenges in recruiting national account managers at the moment is that there is not a lot of talent out there”.