Fells grows its luxury gifting emporium
The UK wine importer has been quietly developing its gifting arm, designing bespoke merchandise for retailers ranging from Fortnum & Mason to Tesco. Sarah Neish discovers how “tea and biscuits” is a lucrative side hustle and why Fells is one of the biggest buyers of Absolut vodka miniatures.
“We do all of Waitrose’s Christmas biscuit tins,” Ed Thornton, development director for Fells, told the drinks business during a visit to the UK importer’s Willie Wonka-style gifting den squirrelled away inside its Kings Langley HQ, just outside London.
It’s not the sort of statement one might ordinarily expect from the distributor of such fine wine producers as Burgundy’s Louis Latour, Bordeaux’s Clarence Dillon and Hawke’s Bay’s Te Mata Estate, but herein lies the magic.
A treasure trove of tea leaves and repurposed vintage signs, this Tardis offers a snapshot of the extensive range of merchandise that Fells’ elves are quietly hammering away at for department stores, restaurants and English wineries. Of course, there are the usual wicker hampers on offer, with one corner of its gifting showroom awash with Fortum & Mason’s signature turquoise, but there is also exquisite tableware, luxury advent calendars, and delectable chocolates hidden inside ‘solid gold’ bars.
Razor-sharp steak knives can be engraved with bespoke branding for clients, staff aprons adapted for one-off events and gift boxes lent their own unique stamp with pop-art-style lids sporting words like “Magnifique!”, in which indie wine merchants can house their own choice of bottles.
High-end service
It all started with Port and Stilton, perhaps unsurprisingly so given that Port dynasty Symington Family Estates is one of Fells’ three owners, along with Familia Torres and Hill Smith Family Estates.
The firm first dipped a toe into the gifting world in 1995, securing high volumes of Port and cheese gift sets in UK supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s. And while Fells still keeps a hand in with these, alongside multi-packs of mini Port bottles, the team is now laser-focused on “high-end” gifting.
“What we’re selling is a service,” said Thornton, referring to the level of personalisation Fells offers. Customers can choose from a cornucopia of items and have them altered to bear their branding to then sell on in their own spaces.
“At the moment, we’re talking to all the UK wine producers about stocking our gifting products in their own winery shops,” adds Thornton, with English sparkling operator Hambledon having already taken up the cry.
Savvy business decision
No longer just a “nice to have”, Fells’ gifting service has become a strategic business decision.
“It’s another revenue source,” Thornton told db. “It can help to ease the pain… when it’s a bad year for the drinks side, it might end up being a great year for gifting.”
Crucially, having something different to offer customers also helps to “cement those important relationships with key retailers like Waitrose, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer etc,” Thornton adds. “It’s another way of building value.”
This year, Fells is stepping up its gifting proposition. According to Fells MD Euan Mackay, “we’ve lifted gifting into the purpose of our company”, with the service now representing “about 10% of the business”.
Tipples to tea
Naturally, a significant component of Fells’ gifting options is alcoholic drinks. For instance, it shifts 50,000 gift packs containing miniature trios of Cockburn’s Port expressions every year.
But alcohol brands do not have to belong to the Fells portfolio, and intriguingly, may even include its direct competitors. Case in point – Fells buys rather a lot of bottles of Laurent Perrier despite the Champagne brand not being represented by Fells (it does, however, count Champagne Henriot among its ranks).
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“At one point I think we were buying more half bottles of Laurent Perrier and more Absolut vodka miniatures than anyone else in Europe!” Mackay said delightedly, adding: “We buy Prosecco, even though Fells doesn’t represent any Prosecco producers…”
Thornton and his team are always on the hunt for new and innovative ways to package wines. He lifts the corner of a large hard-backed book that wouldn’t look out of place in a library to reveal a half bottle of Port, complete with glasses. Similarly, miniature spirits bottles come concealed inside a four-inch tall replica of a Smeg-style fridge.
Product design and packaging is all done in-house, with Fells managing “five or six warehouses” in the UK, and gifts shipped all over the world.
One of the benefits is that it’s a niche sector, meaning Fells can really ‘own’ the market.
“No one else is really doing this kind of work,” added Mackay, referring to the selling of items to retail and trade customers rather than directly to the consumer.
What’s selling best?
“Tea is a growing interest for us,” revealed Thornton.
Again, this is absolutely by design. “Coffee drinkers tend to be more brand loyal, whereas we’ve found that ‘tea people’ are more experimental.” Fast-forward to Fells elevating a simple Earl Grey tea with “cornflowers and wildflowers” for a more nuanced flavour.
Tins of tea come in every shape and size, adorned with William Morris designs, or via exclusive collaborations with the V&A and Imperial War museums. Tea is inexpensive for Fells to buy, Thornton added, meaning it can afford to push the boat out on aesthetics and flavour experimentation.
Incidentally, Mackay is backing alcohol-free sparkling tea to be the hit drink of summer 2026. Fells’ own Copenhagen Sparkling Tea is flying out, with sales “up 65% in the first half of this year compared with the same time last year,” Mackay said.
People, he added, are “quite comfortable” serving it in luxury hospitality settings.
“In the Ritz London you literally see staff walking around with a bottle of Champagne in one hand and a bottle of sparkling tea in the other,” he said. “The moment is completely equal for everyone.”
While the drinks trade continues to grapple with rising taxes and red tape, compounded by the current fuel crisis, such cheering news is welcome indeed, as is the joyful respite of browsing Fells’ Aladdin’s cave of gift-shop gold.
“We want to lift the profile of our gifting arm and make it a bit more visible this year,” said Mackay. “You have to be able to look people in the eye and hand-on-heart say ‘This product is really worth it.’ And I think we can do that.”
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