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Wine-Searcher expands into London
Wine-Searcher, the global price comparison search engine, has opened an office in London, bringing it “closer in touch” with the wine, beer and spirits industry.
Wine-Searcher is opening an office in south London. (photo: iStock)
Wine-Searcher’s head office is in New Zealand, but the company said that operating in the London time zone would allow it to conduct business more effectively in its key markets.
Its biggest market is the US and more than a third of the company’s five million active monthly users are based in Europe.
With wines and spirits increasingly sold online, Nicholas Oakes from Wine-Searcher’s London sales and marketing team, said that accurate product data and prices had to be updated daily.
Wine-Searcher uses spider software to collect data information online from wine merchants.
Oakes said that Wine-Searcher had to ensure that producers were providing accurate data on wine prices, labels, alcohol levels, and grape varieties.
“We are increasingly reaching out directly to producers,” Oakes said.
The company’s new London team is formed of six technical and sales and marketing staff.
Aleyna Murty, who holds a WSET Level 4 Diploma in wine, has been appointed to the role of senior wine specialist.
Wine-Searcher’s new London office is based in Wandsworth Common.
It said its London operations would allow the company to update accurate daily information to its database within 12 hours and to resolve technical issues more quickly.
Wine-Searcher continues to mainly deal with wine merchants.
It said that a “physical presence” in London would help it further develop business and be more “customer focused.”
The company has worked with London wine auctions including Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
“Our goal is have all wine merchants and producers on Wine-Searcher, making it the place to go for both wine lovers and producers who want to find prices,” Oakes said.
Established in 1999, Wine-Searcher receives 226 million searches per year.
It database lists 10.5 million wine, beers and spirit prices and includes data from 93,000 wine shops, auctions, merchants, wholesalers and producers from 157 countries.