Oddbins basks in glory

Oddbins is enjoying its longest period of sustained growth since 2004. After months of speculative turmoil, the retailer says that “repositioning of its proposition” has generated double digit sales growth, an increasing average bottle price and a consistent increase in footfall.

Simon Baile, chief executive of Oddbins said that one of the retailer’s most important repositioning strategies has been to go back to sourcing bin-end products.

He told the drinks business: “When we arrived [to the business], a vast amount of the wine here was exceedingly ordinary and wasn’t up to scratch. So we spent the last 18 months sorting out which ones were worth keeping. When I came to Oddbins I was 100% intent on driving this [strategy] through the business.

“Now, we’re getting very small, new wineries into Oddbins and last year we introduced 450 new wines into our stores,” he added.

Baile also confirmed that as well as the continued increase in average bottle price, currently touching £8, over the past 10 weeks it has also seen the average basket price increase by 8%.

When asked whether the positive results were a reflection of discounting, Baile told db: “Some of it has been. We’ve brought in some of the old ethos, in that we’re selling bin-ends. People think we used to be this lovely, comfy business selling fancy wine but we never were. One of our founding principles was to sell wines for a good price until they ran out.

“I would suggest that 30-40% of the uplift is because we’re doing that kind of thing. But it’s not all about three-for-tens,” he added, “that’s not where we’re going.”

Finally, Baile said: “We’ve always been about deals, but with great products, and part of what we’re doing is bringing back the bins.”

With online sales increasing by 38% over the last 10 weeks, the multiple retailer’s website is also reported to be performing well. Oddbins anticipates that its online sales will increase by 50% (like for like) by the end of the year, especially after the launch of its new website, which is scheduled to come in effect during the second half of 2010.

Jane Parkinson, 09.04.10