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News
The Wine Society suspends all orders
The Wine Society has announced that, following the prime minister’s announcement, it will stop taking new orders and all deliveries with immediate effect.
CEO Steve Finlan issued a long statement this morning (24 March) to the effect that the company was suspending all operations for the foreseeable future.
He said: “The Prime Minister’s statement was very clear that the single most important action we can all take in fighting coronavirus is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
“I wholeheartedly support the need to do this and as a result we need our employees to stay at home. Many of our employees are already working from home, but this latest development means that our warehouse and transport operations will now be suspended.
“Many of you will be disappointed and some may not agree with our decision, but it is simply impossible for us to argue that it is worth putting our employees at risk in order to deliver a non-essential service. I believe that this is the responsible action to take right now and I hope that most of you will agree.
“My team and I are extremely sorry that this will mean that we are unable to fulfil outstanding orders for the time being. It is uncertain for exactly how long this position will prevail and my team will start immediately to contact members about the status of their orders so that we can bring clarity to the situation. My sincere apologies if our automated systems for communication around delivery are not quite in sync with the speed that we have taken this action.
“We are making changes to our website now so that members and non-members can continue to enjoy our rich content, share our love of wine and spend time together on our Community pages. Please bear with us while we get these changes up and running.
“We pride ourselves at The Wine Society in always doing the right thing. I believe strongly that we are doing the right thing in this instance.
“We will endeavour to provide timely and effective communication as this rapidly evolving situation continues to develop. In the meantime, I would like to thank all members for your understanding and support, and to extend our very best wishes to you all.”
Well done guys .. what an incredibly selfless attitude you have shown and what an example you have set. Thank you
Thank you, Charles – we firmly believe that it’s the right decision. While we could have gone on delivering to our members in the safe and regimented way we have been doing over the past four weeks already, it’s the processing, making up and collation of orders that requires people working in close proximity, and that’s a risk we were not prepared to take.
Stay safe, everyone.
I assume you’ll be putting the majority of your staff on the governments 80% wage relief scheme to avoid paying them yourself during the lay-off period. Truly selfless Steve. I think there are more practical ways you could have found to protect your employees health AND their future earnings…
You do realise that you will be encouraging many more people to leave their homes to make purchases and risk illness,all other mail delivery businesses are managing to cope and serve the customer,a bad decision.
How does the Annual Review 2019/20 justify its assertion that “most members wew hugely supportive of our decision to close ( ultimately for two weeks)?
While your decision means we can’t place any orders until at least 2nd of December and it is inconvenient, as a member I wholly concur with your decision, which is responsible and considerate to the staff and members. It is sad to see some members apparently throwing a sarcastic tantrum, militating against common sense and people’s safety.. I doubt that their cellars are completely devoid of wines! In the meantime I look forward to when you are able to operate normally again.