Majestic Wine resurrects one-off parcels concept

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 30 August, 2016

Majestic Wine is hoping to become the go-to place for suppliers to sell off their surplus stock, after announcing that it is re-launching exclusive one-off wine parcels.

From September, the wine specialist is re-introducing its "when it's gone, it's gone" parcel section to its bricks and mortar stores and online, and is looking for suppliers who may have parcels of wine to sell to get in touch.

An area of each store will be dedicated to the parcel concept, which was first introduced to Majestic stores when the company launched in the 1980s.

As part of the initiative, Majestic is also revamping its exclusive "Parcel Series" - a range of wines which will be given a new look bottle and packaging by Majestic.

Richard Weaver, Majestic Wine's head of buying and merchandising, explained:

"There's going to be an area of each store where we will be able to engage in agile or opportunistic trading.

"With our revamped parcel series we will work directly with producers with wine in tank or barrel. These might be suppliers which need to move produce quickly, but they might not want to sell it cheaper under their own label. We take the wine, redesigned the packaging and are able to sell it cheaply and pass that cost saving onto the consumer."

The parcels were popular for providing small volumes of unique wines and in the 1990s and 2000s Majestic became well known for major purchases from Scandinavian state monopolies, private cellars and direct from producers.

These parcels have become less of a feature in recent years as the store network became too large.

However, Weaver is re-introducing the concept as part of a "back to basics" retail strategy, after coming into the new role of head of buying and merchandising in January.

He has been with the company since 1998.

Weaver said the re-launch is a return to what made the company "special".

"This is an area which grocers in particular struggle with. They have planagrams, which aren't agile enough to incorporate parcel wines. Indies aren't able to move the volume that a 212 chain store can move. We're able to move volume and offer quality wines at cheap prices," he said.

He added: "We now have the systems in place to offer smaller parcels across our 212 store network and online. We want to hear from suppliers who have exciting wines, no matter what size and how fast they need a sale."

The first wine in the revamped range is a parcel of 8008 bottles of Tempranilllo Reserva 2008 from the Spanish region of Uclés.

Printer friendly version