London Wine Fair management buyout hails ‘new era’ for UK’s leading wine fair
London Wine Fair event director Hannah Tovey has led a successful management buyout of the UK’s best known wine trade show, under new company, Vindustrious, backed by private lead investor, Perrin & Partners.
Vindustrious will be led by Tovey and retain all five members of the London Wine Fair team – Kate Stretton (director of international sales); Mara Veith (director of sales: UK, France and Asia); Holly Boatright-Wilson (marketing manager); and Kasie-Ella Dixon (marketing and sales executive) – “ensuring continuity in the build up to the 2026 event and beyond”, it said.
The change is part of a strategic redirection of The Hemming Group, which started the fair in 1981, which will concentrate on its “core” exhibitions and publications business in the infrastructure, transport, public sector and healthcare sectors.
Tovey told db that The London Wine Fair and the drink sector, had been “a massive outlier “ in the Hemming Group’s setup and although she had “very positive things to say about” the London Wine Fair’s time under the family-owned Hemming Group, it grown significantly in its core sectors “and through no fault of its own, the London Wine Fair and the drinks sector were less able to benefit from the skill-sets, expertise and knowledge of Hemming Group”, or from any economies of scale, synergies, or data share.
The Hemming Group had been “incredibly supportive about it,” Tovey said, after talks began following the conclusion of the 2025 fair, db understands and bids finalized a month ago. “They really moved mountains to work to a really quick timeline to make it happen.”
The change in ownership maintains strong continuity with the team remaining in place, but is expected to renew the show’s momentum while position it to maximise growth opportunities, in the run up to its 45th anniversary in 2026, Vindustrious said in a statement.
Tovey said it was lovely to offset the stability of the established team with a new “nimbleness”, backed by having investment and a budget to launch new products and be more strategic. “It’s really invigorating the whole team and we have almost the vibe of a start-up, but with all of the kind of history and respect of a long standing brand.”
What will change?
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In term of the day-to-day for core suppliers and the show’s exhibitors, Tovey said that initially, they would “notice very little change” or disruption “in terms of who’s looking after you and what gets done”.
“Because we are [already] mid-cycle, the idea is not to change anything too dramatically in terms of the visible elements of the fair, or the venue, we want to demonstrate that continuity is there and those exhibitors who are already booked for the next year will see their stands and their sponsorships play out as they had anticipated,” she said. However, at a macro-level however, there would be “a discernible difference” in the way the show was structured going forwared “for the benefit of serving the drinks industry”, with the team working towards a one, three and five year strategy.
“We will have a strategy minded towards how best to serve it and how best to align with it,” she explained.
The most “exciting bit”, she added was coming form investment from “an absolute specialist” in Perrin & Partners, who are known for supporting mature industry-leading or market-leading products. In addition to Perrin & Partners’, “a handful of close and longstanding suppliers to the event” have invested in the buy-out, and the money initially initillay being used to offset costs generated in the lead up to the show in May 2026, and later to generate ambitious growth for the event.
“Where you’ve got some investment available, you have the opportunity to respond to the market and make decisions and then implement them with the teams who are already in position, rather than have to come up with an idea and wait for Board approval,” she said.
Tovey has run the London Wine Fair since 2017, steering it through “the most challenging period of its history” during the pandemic, and creating the industry’s first fully digital event in 2020, and a subsequent hybrid event.
The last two years saw growth return to pre-pandemic status with the 2025 edition delivering a 40% increase in revenue YOY “against all market odds”, Tovey said, and the newly launched ‘Host Nation’ initiative which was launched in September has already secured “unprecedented bookings from our domestic wine industry” so far, which would “very much [be] part of the strategic development of London Wine Fair going forward.”
