‘Get a grip’, Virgin Wine boss warns industry

Virgin Wine’s boss Jay Wright has warned the UK drinks trade against running down the UK wine market in the wake of the volatile exchange rate and Brexit.

Wright was speaking to db following the online specialist’s announcement that it would not be putting up prices despite a move to do so by a number of high profile wine retailers and suppliers including Naked Wines and Bidendum.

His argument was the industry was “not doing itself any favours” with talk of price rises and trade tariffs.

“I think people talk themselves into it and think it’s all doom and gloom, but if you look at all the technical advances, analysis of data, personal and relevant ways to attract people with the new marketing, that all gets chucked out,” he said.

He also pointed out that the Euro had been lower in the past “and we weren’t jumping up and down [then] because it was not [about] Brexit”, adding that the exchange rate was just one in a large number of factors determining cost.

“People need to get a grip and concentrate on all the exciting things that we have going for us,” he said. “We don’t do ourselves any good as a trade if we’re always saying ‘Woe is me”. There is no need for all the doom and gloom, and I wanted to make it clear that Virgin Wines aren’t doing so.”

The implication was that this could potentially risking spooking consumer confidence at a time when reassurance was needed.

“We wanted to give our customers certainty over Christmas, but we have no plans to raise prices at all. Lots of people are using it [Sterling volatility] as an excuse to put up prices – we’ve all up against it on market pressure and costs, but it’s just one lever,” he said.

“While you have volatility, you’ll always have pressure on Sterling, our job is to ride those out,” he said. “It is business as normal – we are always looking for [good value] and will carry on whether that is concentrating on a different region, variety or new countries of supply. “

“I’m more interested in the terms of trade agreements that we can get with Europe,” he said.

However, he later added that “if too many’ of those levers change, the business would revisit it.

The call for calm came following news of price rises as well as the British Retail Consortium and pro-Remain former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg warning of ‘crippling’ price rises on the back of the UK not having trade deals in place when it exits the EU. Yesterday Tesco boss John Allan warned of 3% food price rises as a result in the slump in Sterling.

Online ambitions

Wright also confirmed that Virgin Wines was poised to relaunch its website, but had postponed the roll-out until after Christmas in order not to disrupt its busiest season.

“It is a lot more modern and based around customer engagement,” he explained. It is more about the brand and the experience, more social and occasion-based and more lifestyle-orientated.”

Wine Bank was going “brilliantly” he said, since being rolling out free delivery this summer, and was attracting between 3.5k and 6k new customers a month, while the gift business was also seeing “momentum”. It has recently launched a new wine advent calendar (RRP: £69.99) which has 2,500 pre-orders within two weeks, Wright said.