Independent retailers are seeking crumbs of comfort as the key Christmas period approaches, following another tough year in the wake of duty increases, the high cost of living and a subdued economy.

Christina Albon, marketing manager at Tanners, described 2025 as “a challenging year”, with the company forced to raise prices to cover higher overheads.

“We’re conscious that people’s spending power is being stretched,” she added. “With our Christmas products we’ve tried as hard as we can to minimise those increases and make them comparable to last year.

“We don’t expect to blow any records out of the water but if we can come in on par, that would be an achievement.

“The headwinds of increased duty and the pressure of EPR are being felt and, sadly, it impacts the end consumer.

“We’re finding we need to push hard to gain sales. We’re not in the position to be able to discount heavily, so need to use storytelling and customer service to give people a compelling reason to come and spend their money.”

Robert Boutflower, sales director of Tanners’ Private House division, added: “While Christmas won’t be a disaster, we anticipate working even more proactively and creatively to attract sales.

“We think we can play on the loyalty and trust that comes with a 180-year-old business, despite sales being slower than we’d like, and achieve sales on a par with last year.”

Hal Wilson, owner of Cambridge Wine Merchants, said he found it difficult to predict how the festive period might go.

“There is a lack of confidence but I think it isn’t much worse than a year ago,” he added, despite margin pressure in the supply chain.

“UK importers who supply independents are leaving it very late in the year to share offers for Q4, and those that have sent offers cannot offer much discount,” said Wilson.

“This is disappointing because there are still companies trading online who claim to offer large discounts.

“We have used supplier-led offers in previous Christmas sales campaigns to boost sales, discounting some key lines to stay competitive and move volume in the key trading period, without losing too much margin.

“A combination of B2B and DTC events, tastings and promotions, online marketplace activity and great customer service throughout the year always puts us in a strong position to win a decent slice of the Christmas spend.

“We still have many great offers we can make in conjunction with some brilliant producers and believe our portfolio is stronger than ever.

“We believe customers want to buy quality at Christmas time and reward businesses that offer high-quality wines and service with their spend.”

Amathus MD Harry Georgiou is in more confident mood.

“Reflecting back on plenty of difficult times in our 47 years of trading we believe that it’s the way you respond that makes the difference,”  Georgiou said. “We have never stood still to be crushed by the next wave.

“We have constantly diversified our route to market and strengthened our bricks-and-mortar and online retail offering.”

He said expansion of the chain to 15 stores has “enhanced our physical ability to support masterclasses and education for our retail and trade customers and really showcase our innovative wines like never before”.

Andy Cole, MD of Vinotopia in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, said: “I would love to say that we will be as busy as 2024 but enquiries so far are not as buoyant as last year. 

“You never know what is around the corner and I know we have had a couple of big orders from last year already confirmed [for this Christmas] and, even better, paid in advance to secure a better price.

“We are ahead of budget and 2024 sales but we are selling more wine at a lesser cost and smaller margins to achieve this growth.

“Gone are the days of an average spend of £15-20 a bottle. That has reduced to more like £12-15 a bottle and that is optimistic some months. We have had to think outside the box and innovate to stay ahead.”

Jefferson Boss, co-owner of Starmore Boss in Sheffield, said he was confident of a repeat of Christmas 2024, which was one of the retailer’s best ever, despite generally tough trading conditions throughout the year.

“Christmas always comes late in bricks-and-mortar, when customers realise they can’t rely on Amazon to deliver gifts on time,” he said.

“Then it’s a low risk strategy to buy booze, as long as it’s nicely wrapped and looks like you made the effort to obtain something a bit different.

“Christmas is vitally important to us. The fallow first quarter of the year needs to be negated by the spend of the last 10 days of Christmas. Without that financial slingshot it’s hard to imagine how we’ll operate successfully in the new year.”

But he added: “So as long as our staff stay healthy and motivated, I’m pretty confident we’ll have our best Christmas ever, unless it rains constantly in December – because no one ever comes out to shop in the rain.”

Krishan Rajput, owner of award-winning Stirchley Wines & Spirits in Brimingham, says: “Our expectations for Christmas 2025 are guarded, but we continue with cautious optimism. 

“The continuing lack of customer confidence has certainly had a downward effect on trade and it feels like there’s no end in sight. 

“The independent trade relies on the Christmas period but it seems harder to bring customers in at this crucial time of the year.”

But, added Rajput, “we’ve fought hard all year, and we’re ready to finish strongly.”

Away from the independents, Majestic executive chairman John Colley said the group was “quietly confident” about Christmas.

“We’ve invested heavily in our growth plans over the past year.

“We have five new Majestic stores compared to last Christmas, two new Vagabond bars and we’ll be launching the UK’s biggest urban winery just in time for the festive party season, so we’re optimistic that we can deliver another record-breaking peak.

“2025 has been another tough year for all retail and hospitality businesses, but actually we’re in really good shape.

“We made the strategic acquisitions of Vagabond and Enotria to diversify our group and give us a strong foothold across retail, wholesale and hospitality.

“That’s given us really firm foundations to grow from, and our like-for-like performance year-on-year has been pretty strong against the context of the wider market. 

“The government’s changes to National Insurance and alcohol duty certainly haven’t been helpful, and you can see the impact those decisions have had in all the headlines around job losses and the number of pubs, bars and restaurants that have closed so far this year.

“So those headwinds are definitely biting, but we’re outperforming the market and have all the building blocks in place to continue to do so, no matter what the market throws at us.”