The Wine Merchant issue 80

Page 1

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


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