"We have a £100m opportunity in wine..."

Having been born and brought up in the north you know what to expect when visiting Morrisons. Dubbed the "Supermarket of the north", it was the place you went for the weekly fruit and veg and Sunday roast ingredients. It was different from other supermarkets; it was more like going to a big indoor market with different shops selling fresh meat, fish, bread and cakes. I certainly wasn't disappointed when I walked into the, unsurprisingly, spick-and-span Morrisons next door to its headquarters in Bradford last week. Dry ice floated across the fresh fruit and veg, and the usual line-up of mini emporia selling fresh meat and baked goods were all there along the back wall. Gondola ends were filled with good northern favourites like Batchelors Bigga marrowfat peas and boxes of snowballs.

Morrisons: suppliers overestimating lower-alcohol category

Wine suppliers are massively overestimating the importance of the lower-alcohol category and investing far too much time in developing new products, according to Morrisons head of wine.

Morrisons bottles wines in the UK for the first time through Accolade Wines

Morrisons is to use Accolade Wines' bottling facility in Bristol as it looks to pack in the UK for the first time.

Booths encourages trading up with wine-sampling campaign

Booths supermarkets is to step up its wine-sampling campaign in a strategic bid to move consumers away from cut-price offers.

Asda tops supermarket wine buys for the biggest bargain

Shoppers looking for supermarket wine bargains best head to Asda, as data collected over the past four weeks shows it is consistently beating the prices of its major competitors.

Morrisons wants to increase wine sales by £100m

Morrisons claims it has a minimum extra £100 million in sales to be gained from the wine category alone if it maximises its full potential, according to Steve Mosey, trading director for beers, wines and spirits.

Tesco signs three-year business plan with Accolade Wines

Tesco has signed a three-year business plan with Accolade Wines, according to the producers of the number-one UK wine brand, Hardys.

Morrisons Cellar is performing ahead of 'expectations' in first year of sales

Morrisons Cellar, the retailer's first online grocery offer, has surpassed the retailers' expectations in its first year of operation.

Jerry Lockspeiser: let's show consumers the true cost of a bottle of wine

Jonathan Cahill's recent opinion piece about wine value, duty and consumer perception got me thinking. The central point of Jonathan's piece is that because alcohol duty is fixed it takes up a much bigger percentage of the retail price when the wine is cheap than when it is more expensive. Ergo we should be telling consumers that the higher the price they pay for a bottle of wine the more their money is buying wine rather than tax, so the better the value, and exponentially so.

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

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.

Q&A: Fraser Thomson, managing director IPL Beverages, Asda

Harpers spoke to Fraser Thomson, managing director for IPL Beverages at Asda, about what direct sourcing means for the industry

Online global wine marketplace to host virtual shops

A new interactive online global wine marketplace is being launched to challenge "inefficient" retail websites that offer "no social engagement", according to its founder Paul Gerken.

Sula Vineyards launches new Indian wine through Laithwaite's

Indian winery, Sula Vineyards, has launched its newly created Nasika wine range in the UK which will be available exclusively through Laithwaite's.

Sula Vineyards launches Indian wine range through Laithwaite's

Indian winery, Sula Vineyards, has launched its newly created Nasika wine range in the UK which will be available exclusively through Laithwaite's.

Last chance to enter Harpers' French Wine Awards

This week is the last chance for companies and indviduals to nominate themselves or other organisations to be considered in the inaugural Harpers French Wine Awards that look to recognise the best retailers, restaurants, suppliers, distributors  and ambassadors for the French wine category in the UK over the last 12 months.

Chris Porter on how together the Benevolent and drinks industry are changing people's lives

What a year it is turning out to be for The Benevolent. Many of you will have read about the changes that we are making to our core strategy, moving away from a "bricks and mortar" approach. Instead we are concentrating on delivering help where it is most needed, in the homes of employees from our industry who are now unable to work due to an unexpected deterioration in their personal circumstances or the onset of serious illness. The Benevolent's support means that they can remain in their own homes, within their communities, close to their friends, families and loved ones.

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UK's best Spanish wine players celebrated in Harpers' Spanish Wine Awards

Waitrose, The Wine Society, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Camino Group and Matthew Clark were some of the stand out winners in Harpers inaugural Spanish Wine Awards to celebrate the best operators in the Spanish wine category in the UK.

Music executive wins Oddbins' Palate of the year competition

Chloe Dickson, a 27-year-old music-publishing executive from Highbury, North London, overcame nearly 10,000 other competitors to win Oddbins "the Palate", competition to find the best amateur wine palate in the UK.