EXCLUSIVE: BBR eyes up commuters with new Victoria Station concession

Berry Bros and Rudd, the Queen’s wine merchant, is set to extend its reach to the lucrative commuter market as its confirms plans to supply a new concession in Victoria Station, db can reveal.

Berry Bros & Rudd’s in London Bridge station’s Urban Express

The move comes around a year after the retailer quietly started supplying an Urban Express store located in one of London’s busiest train station, London Bridge, which was later reported by the Daily Mail.

The store, which opened last May, saw the UK’s oldest wine merchant share space with upmarket ‘homemade’ frozen meal supplier and retailer Cook and Foyles bookshop, offers a selection of full, half and quarter bottles designed to appeal to commuters picking up a bottle to take home.

A spokesman for the company confirmed to db today that following a successful trial, the company’s wholesale division would continue its supply-deal with Urban Express.

She also said there were also plans afoot to supply a ‘specially selected’ wine range in Victoria Station.

The move is the latest in a series of ventures that has seen the wine merchant embark on new retail models. In 2017, it opened a new flagship London shop in St James’s that it said was not only larger but “much more finely attuned to modern retail”, coming complete with Enomatic sampling machines and shelving for more than 1,000 wines and spirits. The following year it held it’s first pop-up bar during London Wine Week, which it expanded this year at the Flat Iron Square hub. The pop-up saw it serve a selection of wines from its award winning own-label range, available by the glass, bottle and sampling flights, along with a dedicated Champagne bar.

In March, the retailer called off its search for a new CEO by confirming interim executive chairman Lizzy Rudd in the role permanently to steer the overall strategic direction of the business, after she stepped into the role in January following the surprise departure of CEO Dan Jago.