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Great Western Wine remodels shop to make room for 400 strong spirit range

Published:  15 June, 2016

Great Western Wines located in Bath are currently remodelling the space to accommodate a greatly expanded spirits range that the shop looks to offer.

"In a few weeks time we will have a new wall of spirits, which is now available to us. We have a wine heritage and we aren't going to just switch to being a spirits shop. But we will be able to offer a reduced range of the 400 spirits availble from Enotria," said Richard Lecoche, retail & corporate business manager of Great Western Wines.

The decision to expand was made to increase space for the much larger Enotria & Coe's spirit portfolio. Enotria acquired Great Western Wines in 2010, which has helped to make needed investments in the retail shop, but has kept the business to relatively independent.

"The acquisitions was great for us.  Headquarters can look after some of the nuts and bolts of the business, which allows us to get on with what we do well - which is being a wine shop. They don't know retail so they leave us to it.  But if we need investments we can get it. We have expanded faster than we ever had," said Lecoche.

The shop is a quarter of the overall Great Western Wine business and is something the team has to work very hard on to continually grow. Lecoche said: "We have had to work really hard to get growth. We flat lined for a period around 2007 for a few years.  But on average now we are getting between 5-10% growth."

The expanded spirits range is coming in at a great time, with cocktails being so popular and ensuring the expansion is complete ahead of the Christmas trading period was essential. "The shop really helps to drive sales during the Christmas period," said Lecoche.

But the investment in the shop also helps to build loyalty with customers according to Lecoche. He said: "We have seen with the website that people buy 1.5 times per year.  In the shop they usually buy four times per year."

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