Liz Mencel
B.Bus.(Marketing)
Export Specialist, Hydra Consulting
Liz has 25 years’ experience in export marketing roles, 10 years in defense and 15 years in the wine industry. She has exported radios across Africa and Asia (including India), owned and operated successful wine export businesses over an 8 year period; initially exporting a dedicated Western Australian portfolio of producer labels to Japan and the USA, and later teaming with a large USA based importer/distributor to export a more diverse portfolio of wines (from Australia and NZ) to 20+ states across the USA. Later settled in the Margaret River wine region, taking on Export Sales & Marketing Manager roles with Stella Bella Wines, Flametree Wines and Domaine Naturaliste.
Liz is the Program Manager for the unique WA Wines to the World Program, a 5-year $6m+ export initiative. She is responsible for the education program, stakeholder engagement and developing range of global export activations. This program has now run over $4m worth of activations in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Singapore specifically and Southeast Asia more generally. These are both bespoke activations and partnered with the WA State Trade Office, AusIndustry and Wine Australia. This program is driven by Westerrn Australian producers.
Liz is also the founder and owner of Purple Feet located in Dunsborough in Western Australia. Purple Feet is a custom wine services and consultancy business. This involves consulting in the fields of wine export and marketing where Liz develops export markets, marketing and brand strategies, as well as work on related projects, for various SME wine producers across Australia. Purple Feet works predominantly in the Margaret River region, but also services producers from Great Southern, Blackwood Valley, Barossa (SA) and Grampians (VIC).
Liz also runs specialist export projects for SME cider and craft spirits producers in WA. She was also a facilitator for Wine Australia’s Growing Wine Exports program, a national workshop-based program from 2018 to 2021. She also assisted with development of various course resources/materials. Liz designed, developed and delivered WA Wine Export Workshops 2017, a statewide program run in Perth, Margaret River and Albany.
In 2017, as a senior lecturer at Curtin University, Liz was employed over 2 semesters to develop and deliver Wine Marketing & Business unit, a requirement of the Bachelor of Science (Viticulture & Oenology) program.
From 2011 to 2014, Liz worked at Stella Bela Wines, a Margaret River wine producer with 90ha of own vineyards and 1000 tonne winery, offering wine brands spanning 4 different price/quality tiers. Her role involved management of existing export markets (UK and Canada), as well as development of new export markets (throughout Asia and the USA). Liz assisted Stella Bella in establishing the company’s own national import operation in the USA, with product warehoused in California and shipped to a growing network of distributors (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio). Liz also set up new importer/distributor to represent top-tier wines in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as a new importer/chain retailer to represent entry level wines in Mainland China.
Liz was the Manging Director and Owner of The Country Vintner Pty Ltd from 2004 to 2011, a Perth based exporter of Australian and NZ wines, affiliated with USA based importer/distributor, The Country Vintner Inc, located in Richmond, VA. Managed a portfolio of wines for national USA import/distribution. Worked with producers across numerous Australia/NZ wine producing regions, established a USA distribution network, managed a small team of staff locally and in the USA, and developed/managed production of Company’s own private label wines.
Liz was also the owner of Tukka from 2002 to 2004, a Perth based exporter of boutique Western Australian wines to Japan and the USA. At Tukka, Liz established specialist portfolio of wines from Margaret River, Great Southern, Pemberton, Geographe, Peel & Swan District. Liz also established ongoing commercial relationships with importers in Japan (Osaka and Tokyo) and the USA (New York and Mid-Atlantic). Liz also developed a joint initiative with WA Govt Trade & Investment Office in Japan to host portfolio tastings of WA wines in Tokyo and Kobe (exclusive to Tukka’s portfolio).
Liz has completed 2 courses toward Graduate Certificate in Wine Marketing: Wine Marketing and Global Wine Marketing at the University of South Australia (2003-2004) and has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing Major, Public Relations Minor) from the Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA (graduated 1991).