Wine fair pledges £40k to indy and on-trade

The London Wine Fair has pledged £40,000 to encourage independent retailers and sommeliers from the on-trade to attend this year’s event.

100 members of the on-trade and 100 independent retailers from beyond London will be offered travel and accommodation bursaries to attend the event.
Travel costs will also be offered to London-based visitors.

Attendees from these sectors will also be invited to an exclusive lunch at an on-trade lunch on Monday, 2 June and a retailer lunch on Tuesday, 3 June.

The fair’s 2014 strategy assessment flagged these sectors as priority targets for this year’s three-day event.

Ross Carter, the event’s director, said: “2014 is all about a return to the roots of the UK wine trade.

“If we are to successfully engage with those independents and sommeliers for whom expense has been a barrier to attending in the past, then we need to incentivise them with these bursaries and also, of course, relevant and tailored content.”

London Wine Fair organisers will be asking exhibitors to nominate buyers and key influencers from both sectors and the final target list will be drawn from these nominations.

For more information click here.