Negative inflation in beer and spirits, wine hemmed in by psychological price barriers … that’s bad news for everyone except the consumer. But now it’s more than a question of profitability. Retailers are facing a barrage of criticism over discounting and claims that such activity is irresponsible. The attacks come from people with vested interests: the on-trade (rapidly losing market share to the offs); Scottish…

As everyone knows, the way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a large one. But that hasn’t stopped an enthusiastic army of entrepreneurs opening dozens of wine merchants across the UK over the past few years. Why are they doing so? Haven’t they read the stories about collapsing margins and supermarket dominance? Somehow these shops are not only…

The report, commissioned in partnership with Wines of Chile, identified 512 independent retailers with a specialism in wine. The sector has been watched with some enthusiasm by suppliers, especially as it seems to have defied predictions of the demise of the independent sector with hundreds of new stores opening in the past few years. Wines of Chile UK director Michael Cox has called independents the…

To take some of the pressure off Howard-Sneyd, Andrew Shaw, a former buyer at wine merchant Stone, Vine & Sun, joined the buying team in January 2007 to work alongside Dee Blackstock MW and Nick Room. Shaw will be responsible for wines from South Africa, Bordeaux, Germany and Italy, while Howard-Sneyd will stay in charge of buying from the Rhône Valley, south of France and…

It’s often claimed that, without Tesco’s strong performance, the wine trade would be in decline, and with sales up by just under 9 per cent it’s a statement that stacks up. Beer was up 11.5 per cent and spirits 8.2 per cent in value terms. The Wine Club now has 550,000 members and more than 4,000 of them turned up at fairs in London and…

Celebrations continued at Christmas when sales of its Taste the ­Difference Vintage Champagne rocketed after the bubbly came top in Which? magazine’s blind taste test. The Taste the Difference brand was extended into wine , with 30 wines adopting the name as a replacement for the old Classic ­Selection fine wine label and, in September, another beer – a Franconian-style dark lager – was added…

First, the facts: the week was unusual, with a full trading week before Christmas, falling on a Monday for the first time in my tenure as a retailer. Although we’ve had an indifferent year, it was our busiest seven-day period ever. In fact, we set consecutive day records for takings on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas Eve (which thankfully, was a bit quieter, as…