Wine sales rocket 20% to €44m at Vente-Privee

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 16 February, 2015

Wine sales rocketed in 2014 at flash sales site Vente-Privée, which is celebrating a 20% increase in wine turnover to €44 million, as it ramps up its UK focus with the appointment of a new managing director.

The French-owned site, which launched wine sales to the UK market in March 2014, sold 4 million bottles of wine globally in 2014, up 21% on the previous year's sales of 3.3 million bottles. It does not break down its results by country.

It averages turnover of around €10,000 per wine sale, which usually span three to five days. Vente-Privée's sales offer discounts of around 40% on the standard retail price. While it mainly sells French wines, it has been steadily increasing the number of Spanish and Italian wines it offers - and hosts at least one new wine or spirits sale per week on the UK site.

Sally Scott Sally Scott has been appointed to the newly-created role of UK managing director at Vente Privee

It has also just recruited a managing director for the UK - Sally Scott, former marketing director at Selfridges. The firm says the UK is an "increasingly important" market and Scott will focus on business to business as well as business to consumer activity. She is very keen to develop the company's wine offer to the UK.

Scott started out at auction house Sotheby's in London, before moving into fashion magazines, then marketing. She spent six years heading up Selfridge's marketing before joining luxury shopping village outlet group Value Retail in 2011, also as marketing director.

Scott said: "The UK is a major focus for the company's international growth and I am looking forward to overseeing a new chapter of vente-privee's development in this dynamic market."

Xavier Court, co-founder of vente-privee.com, told Harpers.co.uk last year that its bestselling wines in the UK were the Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux wines, as well top wines from Burgundy and the Rhone valley.

Brands that have worked with Vente-Privée in the UK include Maison Louis Latour, Michel Chapoutier, Albert Bichot and Lurton. Deals between producers and Vente-Privee are usually made for a particular consignment and often done Europe-wide or direct, meaning they bypass the usual route to market. While some worry UK distributors might miss out, producers say the flash sales drive brand awareness, and that consumers revert to traditional retailers for their next purchase.

The retailer employs 2,100 people and operates across eight European markets including Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium. It has specialised in selling brand overstock since 2001 and restricts its online sales to its 24 million members. Its gross turnover was €1.7 billion in 2014.

Printer friendly version