The Wine Society reveals reopening details

By Lisa Riley

Published: 05 April, 2020

The Wine Society, which stopped taking new orders and making deliveries with immediate effect following the Prime Minister’s ‘lockdown’, has revealed it will be ready to reopen for business during the Easter weekend.

The business said the reopening would be on a “reduced service”, meaning initially it would only be taking orders for full unmixed cases and offering full-case withdrawals from Members’ Reserves.

“This will not be business as usual, but we are all committed to doing our very best. Based on our experience before closure, however, initial demand will inevitably exceed our ability to pack orders in our new environment and this will impact delivery dates,” said The Wine Society.

Thanking its members for their patience while the business made “a number of vital changes to our warehouse operation to make its environment safe for its teams", CEO Steve Finlan, said: "I am pleased to say that we have successfully implemented the significant changes needed for our warehouse to reopen safely.

“We have tested the operation and systems to the full satisfaction of our workforce and our union representative. I hope that this reassures those members concerned for our employees’ well-being. All other business activities are being operated by teams working from home.”

The team’s first task was to clear the backlog of orders generated in the weeks leading up to our closure, he added.

“All members with an outstanding delivery will be contacted shortly by Member Services with more details. We will work as quickly as possible to clear this backlog, but demand during the period before closure was extremely high, and this process will take some time”.

New orders for delivery remain suspended and the business is not taking applications for membership or new subscriptions to its Wine Without Fuss and Vintage Cellar Plan schemes.

The Wine Society’s Tastings & Events programme also remains cancelled until the end of June, with its Cellar Showroom in Stevenage also closed until further notice.

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