Tesco simplifies own-label wine range

Tesco has overhauled its own-label wine range, removing two ‘confusing’ sub-brands to offer a more coherent and ‘recognisable’ range.

Tesco revamps its own label wine range (Photo: Wiki)

The retailer confirmed today that 118 wines had been included in the “redesign” of the own label range, which has ditched the entry level ‘Vineyards World Wines’ and ‘Simply’ sub-brands to allow it to strip out duplication and devote more space to better-selling lines.

Availability is also being improved, it said.

A spokesman told db it was “all about avoiding duplication” and was “part and parcel” of the revamp that was announced over a year ago and started last October. He explained that whereas previously there may have been a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon in each tier, for example, this duplication had now been stripped out.

“Before we had the main Tesco own label range, plus Simply and Vineyard, but now those two tiers have disappeared, we just have the one range,” he said. “Tesco wanted to simplify the wines range and make is easier to shop, making it more transparent and easier to understand and felt that the different tiers of Vineyard and Simply were making it more complex for people because it brought in price-branding, which it want to move away from.”

“Now it has one own brand range with much more stable pricing, that will help people find the wines they want and understand the pricing a lot better,” he said.

The simplified own label offering will sit alongside the existing Finest* range, which remains unchanged.

Only ten of the wines are completely new to the range, the majority having sold under the Simply or Vineyard sub-brand. Six wines previously available under the Finest* range have been added to to the own label range.

“There had been space for those particular styles in the own label range, so the wines were moved from Finest* to own label instead of bringing in [unnecessary] npd,” he added.

The range concentrates on the best-sellers but has also allowed allowing the BWS team to bring in new wines, ranging from a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a South African Pinot Noir, a Spanish Tempranillo, and a Bordeaux Superior to “something more exotic like a Tesco Fruit Fusion peach and pineapple

Gavin Warburton, Tesco’s category director for BWS said the retailer had listened to its customers and the new branding had been designed to help customers make a quick and easy choice in the wine aisle.

“They’ve told us they want to get great value for money on quality products, but they sometimes need help to navigate the range,” he said. “With this in mind, we’ve made our award winning range more recognisable, and easier to shop by removing as much duplication as possible, so that shoppers can have the peace of mind that they can get everything they need at Tesco.”

The move comes eight months after Tesco revamped its entire range, adopting a fixed price model and stripping around 300 lines out of its range, a reduction of 27% to 660 wines, as well as revamping packaging of its Finest* range to give it greater prominence.

At the time, product development manager Graham Nash said it was a learning curve that Tesco might not have got “100% right“.

“Every wine really needs to earn its place now but all the major wine brands still have some representation within our range. Some of our own-label has gone but it still accounts for around 40-45% of our range,” he said, adding that the breadth of the range has improved.

In August 2015 the company surprised its customers by closing its popular Wine community.