Northern star

The quality and diversity of its drinks listings have gained national recognition for Booths supermarkets. And they’ve managed to keep it in the family too, says Robyn Lewis

THE FOUNDER OF northern-based retailer EH Booth & Co was a tea dealer who opened his first store in Blackpool in 1847 at the age of 19.  His entrepreneurial spirit has run through the generations, and the operation has remained under family control, expanding to the current 27 stores spread across the north of England.

Perhaps none of the Booth family could have foreseen, however – even with the help of tea leaves – how important wine would become to the business with the advent of the fifth generation of Booths.

The retailer had been selling wine and spirits since the early days but it wasn’t until Edwin Booth began to buy wine for the supermarket that people began to sit up and take notice of the wine offering at the chain and the awards began to flood in.

One of the most recent accolades, and the one that Edwin Booth, now chairman, claims he is most proud of, is the 2002 "Overall Wine Merchant of the Year" award from the IWC. "We had been recognised for our excellence as a regional retailer of wines many times before that, but that was a real acknowledgement of our achievement," he says.

These days Edwin Booth is far too busy at the head of the family company to continue buying the wines for the stores, though he says he misses the job greatly.  He has handed over wine buying duties to Sally Holloway, under whose control the retailer won the IWC award.

It is clear that she relishes the Booths job, as she talks with a passion about the different approach she can take from other supermarket buyers.

"Here as a buyer I can look at the quality of the product not just the margin and promotion side," she explains.  "Obviously that comes into it because you want to give your customers a good deal, but I’m not targeting the whole package in those terms.  It’s about looking at the wines individually." 

Holloway looks after wines and spirits herself but she is joined in the off-licence department by David Smith who takes care of beers and ciders as well as soft drinks, coffee and tea (taking over the mantle from that first Booth).

He has concentrated heavily on creating a much admired and extensive range of British and foreign beers and ciders, a range that he hopes will one day generate a similar buzz and profile for the retailer as the wine department has done.

"Actually we are in a very lucky position because the more serious wine drinkers that we tend to get shopping at Booths these days, are also those who buy the unusual beers, so there is a ready market there for us.

Hopefully we can develop that even more, use that point of difference and become known for it as well."  The main difference between the BWS ranges at Booths and other supermarkets seems to be the proliferation of smaller producers and brewers.

"That is how we are different from a lot of our competitors," says Holloway. "We have a lot of wine from producers who are small and who aren’t that widely available." Smith agrees, pointing out that he deals with over 60-odd different brewers in the beer category alone.

"I mean, if you look at that in comparison with someone like Sainsbury’s it would be a lot less for them, I’d say and that is a benefit that we need to talk to our consumers about."  Of course, there are disadvantages to working with smaller producers as well.

As Smith says, "In a lot of cases a product is great but the branding and packaging is just awful and often we don’t take them because of that.  I mean you look at the beers in particular that come in and you think, well, from a consumer’s point of view they’ll have to man-handle it before they know what is in the bottle and you can’t afford, with the range we’ve got [130-odd British beers alone], to expect people to pick up each one and find out exactly what is in it. I mean, take this one here." He points to a dumpy brown typical beer bottle.

"That’s a light, golden beer but at first glance it looks like it could be a dark ale or even a porter and that confusion just puts people off." 

While Holloway admits that the problems in wine aren’t quite so extensive, she admits that there are hurdles when it comes to small producers and branding: "They tend to think, well we’ve got a good product here so it doesn’t matter what it looks like, but you know the UK consumer has moved on from that and packaging does count these days.

In terms of wine, I would never choose anything with a garish label but some of the labels are so boring that it’s just as bad, and that’s quite frustrating."  With a brand name as strong as Booths and as synonymous with quality and independence as it is, wouldn’t the answer be to take control of such issues by retailing more wines under own-label? "We do have own-label," protests Holloway.  "But it is very small in comparison to our competitors, really.

Just a small range and mainly French. That’s because I think it is quite difficult to source own-label wine really as, because of the volume required, it can only be sourced from a small base so you end up with similar kinds of wine, which isn’t what I am trying to do, and really I wonder if people want a wine with a supermarket label on their table? I might try and do something in southern France, but on the whole I think our customers are more producer-led and so I am looking at exclusive bottling as I think that’s something our consumers would buy into."

In terms of the whole wine offering at Booths, Holloway says their biggest strength is really in the £4-£8 price bracket.  "This is where you can get interesting wines and get people to trade up," Holloway says.

"We are lucky in that we tend to get customers at the higher end of the retail spend but they still need pursuading to try new things, of course, because there is a sort of fear of wine. I suppose if you are going to spend £7 or £8 on a wine then it’s a lot of money to risk on something you may not like.

I guess that’s where brands come in, and they are a key part of our offering. Having said that, it is important not to look as if we have too many branded wines an offer because we need to make sure that we maintain the point of difference and the reputation we have built up for wine over the years."

The biggest category in the section is Australia though, as Holloway admits, this is mainly driven by promotion and that really the Booths customer tends to be a bit more traditional. "Which is why France is second and most of that isn’t driven by promotion," she explains.

In terms of promotional strategy both Holloway and Smith agree that it is a frustrating industry to work in ("Do you see Interflora discounting their flowers around Valentine’s Day  and Mother’s Day?" asks Smith) and they agree that their strength in non-big brands helps keep the deep price discounts down as much as possible.

"I mean you can’t do without it completely but I think people need to think more carefully about it," says Smith.  "As a company we can do very well with secondary types of brands which is great because if you look carefully at the major multiples then they lose quite a bit of money on some of the main brands they put out.

It is better that we can put something out there at quality and at a reasonable price." That does not mean, however, that the team doesn’t do any promoting at all. It is just that they like to be rather more inventive about it.

"I think that promotions that are well thought out are great," confirms Holloway.  "We took £2 off a Reserva Chianti recently, but it was still a high spend so people bought it on promotion but they were still trading up.

Also, our customers are very responsive to food and wine matching so we produce a seasonal brochure with our suggestions that gets door-dropped for them to keep, and we work hard to try and link drinks and events – Greek wine and food for the Olympics for example."

It is no secret that with the reputation Booths has developed for wine that it has become a destination category for wine lovers – and not just in the North either.

The development of the www.everywine .com internet site has widened the consumer net for the retailer and with Smith’s clear determination for beers and ciders to develop a similar standing, Booths reputation as a purveyor of fine beers, wines and spirits seems likely to continue.

The Booths legend may have begun with tea ut it looks as if the future will be in a very different category.