Sold. Import, Distribution & Wholesale Of Fine Wines

Import, Distribution & Wholesale of Fine Wines

Ref.EJ054
Location Bedfordshire
Asking Price £ 295,000

Originally established in 1984, this well known and respected importer and wholesaler of quality wines, has built a firm base in the UK market, covering around 40-50 key repeat clients across a 50 mile radius in the Northern Home Counties. The business is now operated daily by one of the vendors who joined the firm in 2000 to take on the role of General Manager and add accounts and suppliers to the company.

The business buys wine both from agents who supply around 70% of stock, with the remaining 30% shipped in direct from producers. Currently the business stock and distributes wine from around 10 suppliers, some of which the company has sole distribution agreements across their catchment area. These key relationships have been built and strengthened over many years, offering great stability to the business overall.

The company was originally founded on supplying Beaujolais wine from France, this still makes up a good proportion of stock, however over the years there has been additions from across Europe and the New World. With a focus on high quality, and the individuality of the labels sourced, the business products distributed by the company tends to appeal to more discerning clients such as Independent Restaurants, Gastro-pubs, Caterers, Golf Clubs and Hotels. The firm enjoys high levels of repeat trade from the historic client base, again offering excellent levels of stability to revenue levels.

The vendors have tended to run the company as a lifestyle business over the past decade, comfortable in the workload, profit and benefits of running the operation at the current level. They are confident that with added drive under new ownership, the business could easily be expanded in a number of directions, and offers great potential for new owners.

Expansion Potential
This business has many directions for further growth. The first route would be by simply diversifying the product range stocked and distributed by the business to current customers to include complimentary products such as spirits and beers, ideally moving towards a one-stop shop for alcohol with regard to their key customers. There are also great opportunities to greatly increase trade from direct business development either into neighbouring geographic regions or to new clients. This could be from Director level or by employing a Sales Person / Business Development Manager specifically tasked with this role.

The business could also benefit from developing a website, ideally with automated e-commerce ordering facilities, both for current clients, trade accounts and potentially retail customers. As previously mentioned, the business has been run to the capacity and comfort level of the current owners, however they feel the business can accommodate much more trade under new owners with the drive for growth.