26 March 2012

Bestway & Batleys go big on wine this spring

Bestway Wholesale Group believes it is the first major wholesaler to stage such an ambitious wine festival across most of its branches.

With a combination of over 30 major branded wines behind it, plus a selection of its own label, Cellar Estates wines too, the festival looks to be one of the largest of its kind.

With a combination of keen prices, a rich variety, and the all important eye of quality, the wines on offer during the festival will be, "the best that money can buy", according to Umar Sheikh, the negotiator for wines at the Bestway Wholesale Group.

He continued, "We are very excited about the interest from the big branded wines suppliers in what we have planned. In addition we are also displaying a great selection of our own label wines with the Cellar Estate brand and other exclusive labels. These have been developed over the past year to ensure that we can offer all our customers even better value for money with some really good margins; and at the same time offer them a special sale or return policy for all our exclusive wines. We hope this will encourage them to be able to select wines with greater confidence and not have to be concerned that they might be left on the shelf. As consumers become more and more fickle, we want to make sure we help our customers in obtaining the very best of product to continue improving their sales."

Apart from encouraging independents to take more interest in selling wine, the festival is also designed to encourage retailers to understand more about how to sell and promote wines. With wine valued at some 36% of all drinks sales, it is considered a growing category, getting bigger by *3.6% this year alone.

Mr Sheikh continued, "We really want to encourage retailers to get the range right, stock the best selling brands and ensure they are easy to find on the shelf. The recommended space on the fixture for wines is around 40%. One of the most important points we want retailers to appreciate is to ensure that wine is available chilled. We know that 90% of wine purchases are bought for consumption on the same day."

The wine festival will feature across Bestway and Batley branches nationwide and will include a complete range of wines including some of the best and biggest on the market to appeal to all tastes, including Blossom Hill, Echo Falls, Hardys, Gallo, Jacob Creek, Oxford Landing, and Casillero Del Diablo. The range of Cellar Estates wines will include the IWC Silver award winning, Chablis at £34.99 per case of 6 x 75cl offering a 20.4% POR; Quarry Hill Colombard Chardonnay at £17.99 per case of 6 x 75cl with a possible 19.9% POR; Cellar Estates Royal Cava Brut or Rose for £22.99 which could bring you a POR of 20.6% and Cellar Estates Saint Emillion, another IWC award winning wine at £31.99 with a POR of 19.9%.

* Neilson Epos data 12/2012