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Swig comes out of downturn with growth in sales across all sectors

Published:  27 September, 2013

Swig, the online wine retailer and distributor, has told Harpers.co.uk it is up 18% in sales since April, with growth coming from all sectors of the trade, be it direct to the on-trade and retail or through its own trading website, which alone has seen a 100% increase in sales year on year.

Robin Davis, founder of Swig, said the company needed to start driving growth again after going through a period of "consolidation during the downturn". He said the business had spent that time re-focusing its overall offer, investing in new more efficient software and it is now starting to see the dividends.

"It is coming back. We are starting to sell out of certain wines again, which can be frustrating but also a good sign," he said. "The last six months things have really turned around."

Davis believes those businesses that were able to stock, re-group and reposition themselves during the economic crisis are now well placed to succeed going forward. He said there has also been a similar balancing out amongst producers and that the best quality players would "benefit much  more" as a result.

"People now know who the best quality producers are and are keen to work with them," he added.

Such as its growing estate of quality South African producers and winemakers like Alex Starey at Keermont and Duncan Savage at Cape Point Vineyards.

"These are wineries that are so different to what South Africa was doing say 10 years ago. We have got different producers to reflect the new style of winemaking."

He said Swig was keen to work with the "newer type of sommelier who are more open minded and looking for wines with more expression, aligned closely to their terrior".

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