Emma Nichols head of wine buying at Whittalls

Published: 05 May, 2011

Emma Nichols has been appointed as head of buying at Whittalls Wine Merchants ? which bought 37 Oddbins stores out of administration last week.

Emma Nichols has been appointed as head of buying at Whittalls Wine Merchants ? which bought 37 Oddbins stores out of administration last week.

Raj Chatha, owner of European Food Brokers which operates Whittalls, reassured suppliers the chain will remain a quirky wine retailer.

Speaking exclusively to Harpers Wine & Spirit, multi-millionaire Chatha said: "We are not looking to change the range fundamentally, but Oddbins was previously restricted in who it could deal with. As we are a financially strong company, we can deal with anybody."

He described Whittalls' current wine offering as "convenience with a bit of a twist", but said it would be working to maintain the "quirkiness" of the Oddbins stores.

"Our first focus will be to get stock back into stores and it isn't going to happen overnight. We will have an interim range until we can get up to speed as quickly as possible. The problem we have is that Oddbins has no stock - its warehouse is very light, so it's not as if we could have gone in and bought that."

He said he hoped European stocks could be replenished within 10 days, while stocks from further afield would take up to five weeks, adding that suppliers will be contacted in the next week.

Despite speculation, Chatha denied that EFB had bought the Oddbins name and website, but said the issue was "under review".

Check back on harpers.co.uk for more updates this story this afternoon.