600 a day join Virgin Wines

Virgin Wines has been so “mega busy” with its marketing initiatives, 600 new customers a day are signing up to buy its wines.

The online retailer, which has partnerships with The Daily Mail, LoveFilm and Amazon, is also expanding internationally at a rate of knots.

Speaking last Friday at the firm’s Winter Tasting in London, and on the day when it had a supplement in the UK’s second most distributed newspaper, The Daily Mail, managing director Jay Wright told the drinks business: “We need to make the most of our brand partnerships.

"We’re mega busy at the moment, the phone won’t stop ringing and we have around 600 new UK customers a day signing up. ”

Wright added: “The average for the first two weeks of November was 400 customers a day but now we’ve moved up to average 600 a day for last week.”

Wright also advised that following Virgin’s launches into the US and Australia this year, further international expansion is on the cards.

The retailer plans to launch in Hong Kong next year thanks to its parent company, Direct Wines, having already opened the doors through its partnership with Hong Kong paper the South China Morning News.

“Although it’s a tough market and there’s huge competition, it’s nice to see the company growing,” added Wright.

Virgin Wines celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and was shortlisted for Retail Buyer of the Year and Retailer of the Year at The Drinks Business Awards 2010. It also achieved its most profitable year to date in 2009/10 with an annual turnover of £40 million.

Jane Parkinson, 22.11.2010