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Liberty Wines sees sales jump 14% for first half of 2014

Published:  31 July, 2014

Liberty Wines has seen its overall revenues grow 14% in the six months to the end of June 2014, with on-trade sales putting in a particularly strong performance up 18%.

Liberty Wines has seen its overall revenues grow 14% in the six months to the end of June 2014, with on-trade sales putting in a particularly strong performance up 18%.

Given such recent successes, the firm has appointed two new staff to its London sales team: Riccardo Giacomelli and Angela Ward-Holmes.

David Gleave MW, managing director at Liberty Wines, said: "We are delighted to welcome Riccardo and Angela to our London sales team. We have made significant investments across our business in recent months and are now well placed to continue this upward sales trend."

Riccardo GiacomelliRiccardo GiacomelliRiccardo Giacomelli joins from Bocca di Lupo, where he was head sommelier.

Giacomelli's role at Liberty Wines will be as an Italian restaurant specialist. He joins from renowned restaurant Bocca di Lupo where he was head sommelier. He previously worked at Locanda Locatelli and Novikov. He has also worked at a number of Oddbins stores in the London area.

Angela Ward-HolmesAngela Ward-HolmesAngela Ward-Holmes has most recently been working in the wine indsutry in New Zealand.

Most recently Ward-Holmes has been working at New Zealand wine business Kono. Prior to that she was London-based and worked for a number of other importers.

In February this year, Gleave told Harpers.co.uk that Prosecco was still very strong both in the UK and internationally for the firm. In addition, Valpolicella, and in particular Ripasso, bulk prices "have gone up quite significantly" in the past year because of demand. Outside of Italy, Liberty has added producers from north and Spain and has just completed making its own wine from the north of Spain for the first time. "Gratifyingly, we're also seeing growth in premium Australian wines," after having been fairly flat for the past few years, he said.

The firm moved into bespoke new office and warehouse space last year in Clapham, which Gleave said had enabled the firm to up its service levels as well as direct deliveries.

Liberty Wines imports and distributes wine from 17 countries and over 260 producers. The company was named the International Wine Challenge 2014's On-Trade Supplier of the Year for the sixth consecutive year.

Riccardo Giacomelli joins from Bocca di Lupo, where he was head sommelier.

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