‘I seem to think that you should have one shop, or four shops – having two shops is just going to kill you’
BR I N GI N G YOU T HE WOR LD ’S MO ST ICO N I C W I NE S
to start from scratch and grow it again. You’ve got to be very clear with what you’re going to be sending people. Do you have part-time staff as well?
Oli: They are mostly weekends; on Sundays. We’re looking to take on an apprentice. There’s a college involved and they can help
train them and send them on courses for business administration. We can give them some WSET training and hopefully we’ll get a
kid who’s straight out of school and instead of having a gap year, they will do an apprenticeship and we can train them up so they can help us with our admin and get some wine expertise.
It’s a year-long apprenticeship and we might be able to offer
them something at the end of it. It would suit someone who
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might end up being a rep.
Is the business going as well as you want it to? Oli: We make a living. It’s not going to make us rich but we pay our mortgages.
The reliance on cigarettes has changed things quite a lot. We
grew very easily and organically for four or five years without putting that much effort into it. Then it kind of hit a plateau
because of the cigarettes. But profits were still growing. And we’re now gradually growing again.
Iain: The business is in a good state financially. We’re lucky, it’s
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not easy for a lot of traders these days.
A lot of wine merchants would love to be in your position – equal partners who can take the pressure off each other. Iain: Oli brought along a huge wine knowledge with him. I could do spreadsheets. I guess my point is, when you do partner up with someone it’s good to have slightly different skill sets.
Oli: When you’ve got a partner who you know can do all the jobs you can do, you can safely step away from the shop, and your phone doesn’t need to be on all the time. Iain: It’s a perfect partnership, really.
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