The Vintner targets corporate and on-trade growth

Boutique wine merchant The Vintner is stepping up its growth plans after moving to a new premises in West London which includes a dedicated tasting room.

The London merchant, which was established by Tom Gilbey five years ago and caters primarily for the restaurant trade and corporate clients, has seen it team grow from 4 to 22 over the last few years, and had outgrown its previous shared site. The new offices in Fulham include a dedicated tasting penthouse space, which it says will make it easier to cater for its growing corporate client business and could also act as a “cellar door”, Gilbey said.

The Vintner is also set to relaunch its website in order to highlight how it caters for different sectors more clearly, as well as boosting its e-commerce facilities and adding extra features to its private wine club, the Vault Club. These will allow it loyal customers to see previous orders more clearly, and recommendations, it said.

Around 50% of the company’s business currently comes from the restaurant trade, with corporate clients, institutes and events companies contributing a further 40%, and private clients making up around 7%. It small online retail business, which is driven from referrals from its on-trade partners, makes up only 2% of the business.

“This is a showcase for us as we approach our fifth birthday, and as we see the wine list maturing,” Gilbey told DB. “The list of 100 wines is very approachable and each wine is designed to sing now – we want them to be at the peak for drinking now.”

Managing director Julia Beran said the aim was to grow all parts of the business rather than concentrating on just one sector. There were, she noted opportunities with existing clients as on-trade wine ranges consolidate, and The Vintner was keen to develop areas that were already showing strong growth.

“Restaurants and corporates are wanting smaller wine lists – now they have a smaller list, they are doing 90% of their wine business with us, as opposed to only 20% when they had a bigger list,” she told db. A smaller, more focused list was therefore a big advantage when it came to its on-trade customers, she said, as it meant the business was seen as an effective gatekeeper.

“More and more people are wanting an easy selection process – they want it straight away and that is where our list helps. It is focused already so people trust the selection,” she said, noting that the word being used more and more was ‘partner’.

“It is not a supplier-customer relationship anymore, people are working much more closely together,” she said.

“We are passionate that you can supply to all sorts of business- they key it so have the right wines,” agreed Gilbey. “There is no reason why a Sancerre that works well in a restaurant can’t work in top events catering and also at home.”

“Business will grow by word-of-mouth – and will only do that if the wines are good.”

The company’s portfolio is “always evolving”, Gilbey said as the merchant unveiled its Spring showcase of around 40 new and favourite wines – but the key ethos – wines to drink now rather than going into a cellar – remained the same.

The Spring list, which is available now, includes Crémant de Loire Les Quarterons, Bulgarian Soli Terra Pinot Noir from Thracian Valley, a Barbara d’Alba from Claudio Viberti, a Valserrano white Rioja and Crianza from Spanish producer Pablo de Simon.

Earlier this year the company appointed Nick Daniell from Armit Wine and Quintessentially to the new position of head of private client services, with responsibility for its private members club, the Vault Club.