Supermarkets including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Asda, Morrisons, Lidl, and Aldi have urged the government to reconsider the planned increase to national insurance (NI).  Alongside other chains belonging to the British Retail Consortium, supermarket bosses signed an open letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves.  The letter, which requested a meeting with Reeves, expressed concern about the decision to raise employers’ NI contributions by 1.2%…

In March, Edrington and Suntory Global Spirits UK (then called Beam Suntory) jointly announced an end to their UK distribution agreement. The separation is effective from February 1, 2025. Lucy Britner sits down with Nick Temperley, the new division’s managing director for UK and Ireland. “There’s this wonderful Japanese word,” Nick Temperley tells me. “Gemba. It effectively means go to the place where…

The former trading manager for wine at Waitrose is moving to New Zealand to take on a bigger drinks role at Woolworths, Drinks Retailing has learned. Jamie Matthewson left Waitrose in October after five years in the wine trading manager role, and 14 years at the business. Prior to wine, he was trading manager for beers, cider, spirits and soft drinks.

The cheese and wine pairing company Mouse & Grape opened its first shop on November 7.  Located in Pinner, north-west London, the shop is the latest venture from Jessica Summer, who began sharing cheese and wine pairing ideas on Instagram during the 2020 lockdown.  In addition to her Instagram presence, Summer launched Mouse & Grape as an online shop in December 2021,…

Majestic has opened a new store in Plymouth. This is the wine retailer’s third new store in the last two weeks.  The previous two were in Banstead, which opened on October 31, and Solihull, which opened on November 7.  These openings are part of the retailer’s plans to expand at an average of one new store per month.  The venue in…

In response to consumer budget restraints, M&S has reduced the price of a third of its wine range.  The price of over 120 wines has dropped since April, including a further 22 reductions this week.  This is in addition to the store’s buy four, save 10% deal on wine, previously buy six.  Dror Nativ MW, senior wine buyer for M&S, said:…

October marked the busiest month for supermarkets since pre-lockdown sales in March 2020. According to figures from Kantar, released today, take-home sales at the grocers increased by 2.3% over the four weeks to November 3 to reach £11.6 billion, making this the biggest sales month of the year so far. The take-home sales rise coincided with a jump in the number of…