THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers
Issue 80, May 2019
Dog of the Month: Margaux Stone Vine & Sun, Winchester
Day of judgement Record entry means a marathon session for our Top 100 tasting panel: pages 5, 34 and 35
Borough focuses on franchises Borough Wines is scaling down its retail interests to concentrate on wholesaling and franchised stores. At its high street peak in the autumn of
2016, Borough boasted 10 retail shops throughout London, including Bethnal
Green, Battersea, Chiswick, Dalston and
Islington. Now, with the advent of a new
chapter in the business, only the shops in Kensal Rise, Stoke Newington, Hackney
and the flagship store at Borough Market remain. All but the original Borough Market shop will be franchised off.
Owner Muriel Chatel admits that the
shops opened in the wake of the EU
referendum did not perform as well as
hoped. “It is a challenging time in the world of retail,” she says.
“We thought that we were quite good
at finding locations and that we went into
communities that could really relate to our offer and somehow we got stung.
“The Brexit thing is an obvious reason
but some of the shops we opened before the vote are doing really well – they are
still going up year on year. I think where
people are used to spending with us, they
won’t stop doing it. But if we are not part of Continues page four