Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Wine on the rise with younger consumers as on-trade returns

Published: 20 May, 2021

Younger consumers plan to spend more than before as they return to pubs and restaurants, and spend a larger slice of that money on wine.

Jerry Lockspeiser: Why claiming wine is good for health is bad for business

Published: 19 May, 2021

The wine trade can be a wonderful place to work. Yes, we have had our share of stresses and strains since Covid used its airmiles. True, people running wine businesses can spend more time with PnL spreadsheets and cashflow projections than they do with the latest vintage from Chateau Marvellous. But overall, the balance sheet for working with wine is very strong.

Hallgarten Wines clinches Simpsons for the on-trade

Published: 10 May, 2021

Hallgarten & Novum Wines has become the sole distributor for Simpsons Wine Estate’s range in the on-trade – a move which the distributor said would help them capitalise on “sky-rocketing” consumer interest of English wines.

Draycott to take helm at Gonzalez Byass UK

Published: 26 April, 2021

Melissa Draycott has been appointed MD of González Byass UK, effective from 1 September 2021, taking over the roll from Martin Skelton.

Staffing For Success

Published: 22 April, 2021

For the second of our Building Back webinars in collaboration with Trade Hospitality App, Andrew Catchpole invited on-trade leaders to examine the growing issue of attracting and retaining talent.

Bordeaux trading rises on US tariff suspension ahead of 2020 EP campaign

Published: 19 April, 2021

Market sentiment towards Bordeaux is “showing signs of recovery” as this year’s En Primeur campaign swings around, according to the Liv-ex members’ Bordeaux report released today.

Spirits vs Wine: Rolling with the times

Published: 12 April, 2021

Definitive figures from Kantar show just how much shopping habits changed in 2020, with spirits overtaking wine in baskets for the first time and online reaching hitherto unmatched heights, as Jo Gilbert discovers.

Trade Hospitality app adds new membership tiers ahead of re-opening

Published: 07 April, 2021

The Trade Hospitality app has launched two new membership tiers ahead of the 12 April partial on-trade re-opening, with access to private member clubs and a corporate deal now featured.

Expanded indie-focused campaign follows rise in Georgia imports

Published: 07 April, 2021

Georgia’s national promotional body has teased a number of new initiatives in the UK market after 2020 showed a marked increase in the number of importers, wholesalers and retailers working with Georgian wines.

Perfect match for Jascots

Published: 06 April, 2021

When the pandemic overwhelmed long-standing merchant Jascots, Freixenet Copestick spotted an opportunity to create the ideal symbiotic relationship. Lisa Riley reports.

Spirits overtake wine in shopping baskets

Published: 01 April, 2021

Spirits reached a major milestone in 2020, overtaking wine to become the largest category in terms of penetration in the off-trade for the first time in at least five years.

Jerry Lockspeiser: When wine meets running

Published: 01 April, 2021

The wine trade’s more physically active members will be familiar with the Marathon du Médoc, probably the wine world’s best-known attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable – running 42.2km (26.2 miles) while drinking lots of wine. Twenty-three glasses of Bordeaux’s best to be precise.

Chile: Time to refocus

Published: 30 March, 2021

At Harpers’ recent Premium Chile webinar, voices from all corners of the trade gathered to have their say, as Lisa Riley reports.

Think Insights: Spirits must target daytime eating and drinking

Published: 25 March, 2021

Making the most of daytime, food-friendly occasions will be key to transferring sales from “highly engaged” yet usually evening-focused spirits consumers as the on-trade reopens, CGA has said.

Year of shuttered restaurants and bars has left hospitality ‘shattered’

Published: 22 March, 2021

In the year since the first hospitality shutdown, the sector has taken a battering with more than eight months of closure delivering a heavy blow.

Register now: Think Insights 2021 – Spirits

Published: 22 March, 2021

There is still time to register for Harpers Think Insights 2021 – Spirits event, which takes place across the day on Wednesday 24 March, featuring many leading voices from the spirits, hospitality and indie worlds.

LWF launches Welcome Back Wednesday preview for on-trade re-opening

Published: 22 March, 2021

Organisers of the London Wine Fair (LWF) have announced that this year’s show will feature a special preview day aimed specifically at getting businesses back up and running in time for the slated reopening of the on-trade on 17 May.

Rebooting the on-trade

Published: 22 March, 2021

With reopening now in sight, Andrew Catchpole joined leading operators to discover what learnings from the past 12 months could help the recovery of their businesses.

Webinar to address the ‘existential’ on-trade staffing crisis

Published: 18 March, 2021

Robin Hutson, CEO of The Pig and Lime Wood hotels, Chantelle Nicholson, chef-patron of Tredwells and All's Well, and restaurateur Xavier Rousset MS are to headline a Staffing for Success webinar on Monday 22 March (3.30pm) on one of the biggest challenges facing the post-pandemic restaurant world.

Lambert and Beale take VI-1 fight onto Newsnight

Published: 18 March, 2021

Campaigning wine importer Daniel Lambert and the WSTA’s Miles Beale added further momentum to the wine trade’s calls to abolish the much-derided VI-1 forms during an appearance on the BBC’s flagship news programme on Wednesday eve.