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Free Run Wines gets BRC accreditation
Free Run Wines has become the first independent UK wine importer and agency to gain accreditation with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Agents & Brokers scheme.
Director Charles Elms said the move was an important step forward for the company. “It demonstrates to our customers that our processes meet the leading internationally recognised quality standard in our industry,” he said. “We anticipated the requirements of our clients and decided we needed to gain this certification. This accreditation recognises our best practices here at Free Run”.
“This will help secure our position with our existing relationships, and endorse our company in consideration by prospective customers and suppliers – so we do believe it will assist in building growth for the company,” he added.
The BRC accreditation is a prerequisite for all bottling & packing sites and wineries supplying to the major UK supermarkets, but the Agents & Brokers’ Standard is a relatively new addition. It was announced in January 2014, to provide a certification process for brokers, agents and other non-manufacturing companies, as well as importers, with the first certification bodies gaining UKAS accreditation in May 2015. It ensures that the drinks supply chain can be certified against a globally recognised standard, from winery to final customer.
“As Free Run Wines focus on the supply of wines to this sector we felt it would be to our advantage to gain this accreditation as we form part of the supply chain. It is an important endorsement of our business practices,” Elms told db.
The company was founded by Elms and his business partner Nicolas Bauer in 2001 and now represents a wide variety of wine producers from France, Spain, Italy, Chile and Australia, including Morambro Creek in Australia, Italy’s Riondo, and a number of French suppliers, including Grand Vins Selection in the Rhone and Couleurs d’Aquitaine from Bordeaux and Bergerac.
It supplies some of the major supermarkets & multiple buying groups in the UK, as well as a number of on-trade wholesale companies.