Fine Wines Direct wins Chilean brand contract as it steps up its operations

Fine Wines Direct UK has won a new contract to represent Chilean brand Viña Casa Tamaya SA in the UK.

AG Barr sees profits boosted 10%

Soft drinks manufacturer AG Barr saw a 10% boost to its pre-tax profit to £41.9m, with turnover up 2.7% to £290.9m in the 12 months to 25 January.

Why English wine's Litmus Wines is on board with Branson's South African hotel venture

English winemaking consultants Litmus Wines recently teamed up with Richard Branson's private hotel collection Virgin Limited Edition to launch a new joint-venture wine business in South Africa's Franschhoek region. Litmus' founder and director John Worontschak, and VLE's managing director, Jon Brown, talked to Harpers.co.uk about the venture and what it will mean for the Surrey-based business. 

Wine Intelligence partners with academic institute

Leading research body Wine Intelligence has teamed up with the academic wine institute at Geisenheim University in Germany.

Groceries Code Adjudicator launches new supplier survey

The Grocers Code Adjudicator has launched a new survey which it says will provide a comprehensive perspective on supplier/retailer relations,

Diageo adds bottled beer to Guinness

Port company Sogevinus to launch comms push in UK

Port company The Sogevinus Group is set to ramp up its focus on the UK trade after appointing Sopexa UK to head up a new two-year comms strategy.

Tesco signs property swap with joint-venture partner on 21 stores

Tesco has signed a deal to regain full ownership of 21 superstores that it owned-jointly with a property investment company.

Richard Branson's South African hotel launches new wine joint-venture with English winemaking firm

Richard Branson's luxury hotel collection, Virgin Limited Edition, has joined forces with an English wine consultancy firm, Litmus Wines, to launch a new wine business.

Budget 2015: Chancellor cuts duty on cider and spirits by 2% and wine duty frozen

The Chancellor George Osborne has today cut the duty on cider and spirits by 2%, frozen duty on wine and cut beer by a penny a pint for the third year running in his last pre-election Budget.

'Unprecedented' demand from producers to promote South Africa at Cape Wine 2015

Cape Wine, the trade show for South African Wine, has seen unprecedented demand from producers six months before the show opens its doors.

Budget 2015: Drinks industry waits with bated breath

As the Chancellor prepares to deliver his last pre-election Budget to the House of Commons today, the drinks industry waits nervously to find out if this year's campaign has persuaded him to Drop the Duty!

Budget 2015: Industry hails duty cuts announced in today's Budget

The drinks industry has welcomed the Chancellor's decision to cut the duty on spirits and cider.

Craft beer now used to calculate CPI as sales increase

Craft beer enters the mainstream as it goes in the basket used to calculate inflation for the first time.

Argentina must look beyond Malbec, leading Argentinian winemaker says

Argentina needs to look beyond Malbec in order to take avoid commoditising its flagship grape, the former president of Wines of Argentina has said.

Sainsbury's sees like-for-like sales down 1.9% in latest quarter

Sainsbury saw like-for-like retail sales fall 1.9% in the ten weeks to 14 March 2015, as it warned that food deflation is here to stay.

En primeur risks "exodus" unless it rebalances, Vin-X boss warns

A fine wine investment expert has warned that the en primeur system risks seeing an exodus of châteaux from the system and negociants going to the wall, unless it gets its pricing "right".

Enotria's move to new warehouse set to boost supplier's flexibilty

Q&A: Beltrán Domecq of the Consejo Regulador on sherry cocktails and sherry's affinity with food

Beltrán Domecq, president of Consejo Regulador de las denominaciones de origen Jerez and Graham Hines, UK director of The Sherry Institute of Spain talk to Harpers.co.uk about sherry, its affinity with food and the growth of sherry-based cocktails.

Industry welcomes Treasury plans to review business rates

Industry bodies have welcomed the government's ambitious review of business rates, which were laid out today by The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.