Borough Wines pop-up paves way for new stores

Independent wine retailer Borough Wines is opening a pop-up for Christmas ahead of the opening of two new permanent stores early next year.

Borough Wines opened its seventh site in Columbia Road in November

The new Islington pop-up, which opens on 12 December, will run seven days a week until Christmas Eve, selling a range of wines, craft beers, spirits, Christmas cases and gifts. It is housed in a contemporary ‘glass box’ retail space” on the Essex Road on Islington. Once the pop-up is closed at Christmas, the site will be refurbished, and become a fully-fledged Borough Wine shop in the New Year.

“2016 is quite a promising year for us, with a lot of things happening – but we will be focused on the shops at the beginning of the year,” Muriel Chatel told the drinks business.

Marketing director Corinna Pike added that the Essex Road store marked a departure from earlier stores, as it was more contemporary in design. “People always expect that from us – we take our our time and make an effort with our shops, and always work in a very site-specific way.”

The independent merchant is also set to open another new shop on the Bellevue Road in Wandsworth Common in February – in a former Nicolas Wine store – and has plans to roll out a further three to five shops in the capital over the coming year. It also wants to boost the number of ‘Borough Wines Corners’ – small branded wine corners in independent shops and convenience stores across the UK, which the retailer suppliers with a selection of bottled wines and self-service refills.

“We plan to focus on London for our own shops and our Borough Wine Corners outside London,” Chatel added.

The new Islington and Wandsworth branches follows hard on the heels of the retailer’s seventh site, which opened in a former bakery on Columbia Road in Hoxton in November.

The independent retailer started life as a stall in Borough Market in 2002, but has since opened sites in Hackney, Dalston, Stoke Newington, Kensal Rise and Clerkenwell, as well as a wine and book shop in Hastings – Borough Wines, Beers & Books.