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Berry Bros. & Rudd opens auction house
Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR), the UK’s oldest fine wine and spirits merchant, is confident it can compete in the UK auction space. Eloise Feilden finds out more.
The merchant today announces its entry into the fine wine auctions market, with the launch of Berry Bros. & Rudd Auctions.
Its new arm builds on the success of BBR’s online fine wine exchange platform, BBX, which launched in 2010 and allows customers to buy wines from private collections stored by the merchant.
Berry Bros. & Rudd Auctions is designed to add an additional route to market for larger collection sales of highly desirable stock.
Geordie Willis, Director of New Ventures for Berry Bros. & Rudd, told db: “Since we launched BBX in 2010 we’ve seen a growing interest in the secondary market both in the UK and abroad as people feel more confident to buy and sell fine wine online.”
BBX has been critical in building the new auctions arm as it gives the company “valuable insight into consumer trends and behaviours as well as what producers/regions are of interest to collectors and how this has evolved over time”, Willis explained.
“Tastes often evolve, and realising value from a collection provides funds to reinvest in new vintages and other areas of interest. Auctions will complement BBX, providing our customers with an additional way to manage their collections and we have already seen that several customers take collections to auction, which suggested that it might provide a valuable service to them.”
Willis is confident BBR can compete against well-established rivals in the auction space. “We believe that Berry Bros. & Rudd is well-placed to compete with the UK-based auction houses. We’re building on a long heritage of helping our customers to have access to the world’s best fine wine and spirits, whilst delivering excellent customer service,” he said.
As part of its auctions service, BBR will be offering a buyers premium of 20% and no sellers’ premium.
BBR has a specialist in-house team of authentication experts to ensure traceability of the wines. The merchant is also responsible for the largest fine wine storage facility for private clients in Europe, which has the capacity to store 14 million bottles of wine.
“As well as the option to have wines delivered, Berry Bros. & Rudd is able to offer ongoing cellaring in our world-class storage facilities – with all lots being authenticated with our dedicated in-house team. It will be far easier for our customers and future customers to buy, store and sell through one merchant,” Willis added.
The first auction will open online for customers globally in autumn this year, with more details about the individual lots to be released. Both the UK and Asia will be key markets for the merchant’s new auctions arm, Willis told db, adding that the auctions’ online format will give them “global appeal”.
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I think BBR would be better served entering the secondary whisky market for it’s customers. I’d love to be able to buy, and sometimes, trade whiskies either in barrel or bottle format.