Jascots Wine Merchants rolls out Sunday delivery services

By Erin Smith

Published: 27 April, 2016

Jascots Wine Merchants, specialist supplier to the on-trade and independent merchants, is rolling out seven day delivery services for its London customers. It is the first company to offer Sunday delivery services which it will be providing through its own delivery vans.

"We realised extending our service to seven days a week would benefit many of our customers. This was a collective team decision and I'm very proud of the way everyone has stepped up to make it happen," said managing director John Charnock.

Jascots launched an initial trial for its customers that was supposed to last for eight weeks. However, it was so successful in its first six weeks, the company cut the trial short and decided to make it operational.

With rents ever-increasing in London more on-trade customers are looking to maximise the earning potential of the space of their outlets. By offering delivery everyday of the week, customers have the option of shifting that responsibility of holding stock to their on-trade suppliers.

"The big thing in this country that is driving the need for this service is the cost of rent and the over-arching costs of property. On-trade operators are trying to reduce their stock holding volumes to free up space. They want to use as little amount of that expensive space to hold stock and instead use it to generate money. We are now seeing operators placing small and frequent orders much more often," said Miles MacInnes sales and marketing director at Jascots.

The benefits for Jascots' customers are in that placing smaller orders, with no minimum order required, more frequently, not only reduces stock space, but it also improves cash flow as funds are not tied-up in stock.

An added bonus for Jascots is that over time they expect that customers will also be more willing to try new wines on a list, particularly for premium wines.

MacInnes said: "It helps operators broaden their offering. We have noticed that they are sometimes hesitant to add wines to their list. The Sunday service delivery coupled with the no minimum order addresses that and allows them to offer a wide range of wines to their customers. Many of the conversations we are having with people now are around premium wines because they have confidence to order something new and a bit more premium and they only have to order in small quantities. It takes away the risk for them and allows them to try something new with their clients. Not everything has to be the best seller. Wines of real interest can be offered and are meant for just for some of your customers, but not for all of them."

Initially the company saw that clients were using it as an emergency order service, but over time they expect that to change. "Initially because people are not used to it we are picking up emergency and out of stock orders. But in terms of planning it allows them to hold lower stock and not have to take a huge order on Friday knowing they can top up over the weekend. They will be able to keep more even stock levels throughout the week," explained MacInnes.

For MacInnes, offering Sunday delivery service is a key point of difference. He said: "I know it will be a point of difference. We have been trialling it and have had such an incredible response from our customers. The most likely time to be out of stock is on Sunday, following a big Friday and Saturday service. But Sunday is a key trading day. For those that trialled it, they often have said if they could not have a Sunday delivery, they would have been out of stock of a key line on key trading day which is disastrous."

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