Technology - Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Picking up with The Drop

Published: 19 August, 2021

Blending nationwide delivery app, wine bars that retail and ambitious franchisee model, The Drop is taking hybrid to the next level. Andrew Catchpole reports.

France's great digital shift

Published: 14 July, 2021

A new breed of French digital-solution companies is helping the country’s producers embrace online. Jo Gilbert reports

Long read: Will this be the decade the wine industry ditches glass?

Published: 24 June, 2021

Émilie Steckenborn, sommelier, education consultant and creator of the Bottled in China podcast, delves into the wine industry’s reliance on often coloured, non-recyclable glass while giving the lowdown on this year’s biggest sustainable launches.

Technology: Power of the network

Published: 17 June, 2021

The phrase ‘content is king’ gained new meaning at this year’s LWF where two sessions focused on how runaway digital adoption rates among consumers are leading to seismic shifts around how the industry markets and sells wine. Jo Gilbert reports.

LWF: Digital efficiencies helping with the big three – content flow, stock flow, cash flow

Published: 20 May, 2021

A mental shift around harnessing digital capabilities and automation this year has moved businesses towards stock management systems that free up time and capital to focus on sharing information and storytelling with customers.

Digital strategies and synergies continue to rise in importance as businesses physically reopen

Published: 13 May, 2021

Online services continue to grow in importance, key sources have highlighted this week, as online retail sales continue to strengthen despite physical stores reopening, and as digital strategies and e-booking becomes more important than ever for bars and restaurants re-launching to demob-happy crowds.

Uber buys into growing drinks delivery culture

Published: 23 March, 2021

As Covid propels the delivered drinks market into the mainstream, investment is coming thick and fast, with the major buyout of Drizly by ride-hailing and food delivery giant Uber in the US becoming a watershed moment for this rapidly growing sector. Jo Gilbert reports

Tech vs critics: developing satellite scores

Published: 03 February, 2021

Saturnalia aims to overcome the ‘mystery and magic’ surrounding fine wine pricing and scores with space-based technology. Felicity Carter eyes up its heavenly ambitions

Q&A: Professor Gordy Pleyers, Université Catholique de Louvain

Published: 05 January, 2021

Taking drinks design into the realm of neuro-marketing and science, Professor Gordy Pleyers of Mind Insights at Université Catholique de Louvain introduces Andrew Catchpole to the non-conscious cues at play in our taste for wines and spirits

Long Read: A virtual Christmas will pave the course for 2021

Published: 17 December, 2020

While big parties and large gatherings may be off the menu, premium drinks sales are still expected to grow this Christmas thanks to the rise and rise of online channels.

Q&A: Santiago Navarro, CEO and co-founder, Garçon Wines

Published: 02 December, 2020

Harpers has something of a packaging focus in this month’s issue, due to be published this Friday 4 December. As a preview, we caught up with Santiago Navarro, the creative force behind flat bottle innovator, Garçon Wines. Made from 100% recycled plastic, this innovative new format scored a major partnership with Accolades Wines this year, which will see a number of the company’s brands launch with the flat bottle format. Starting with the installation of a ‘flat’ bottling line at the company’s Bristol manufacturing base – the first of its kind in the UK – the company is now looking ahead to its imminent UK supermarket debut with the re-launch of Accolade’s eco brand, Banrock Station, in the Co-op. We spoke to Navarro about his ambition to re-shape the wine aisle.

AI robot project launches to support UK wine industry

Published: 06 August, 2020

A consortium formed to develop robotics for the UK's viticulture sector to assist in the identification of disease, precision pesticide treatments, and to support pruning and picking, has unveiled its first project.

On-trade digitisation, premiumisation and personalisation are major trends

Published: 29 June, 2020

A digitised on-trade, premium in home drinking experiences and ‘liquid personalisation’ have been identified as the key trends for the year ahead by research and analyst company Rewrite Digital.

AI proving ‘most exciting catalyser’ of wine innovation

Published: 18 June, 2020

The advance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is by far the most exciting catalyser of innovation in the wine industry, according to speakers at an Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) webinar held yesterday (17 June).

In spitting distance of Covid-19

Published: 15 June, 2020

At the onset of the ongoing global pandemic, traditional on-trade channels saw sales fall to zero overnight. But what about the wider drinks trade and the interactions within it? Jo Gilbert asks if it's time to reassess tried – and maybe tired – formulas?

‘Diversity and flexibility’ may replace specialism longer term

Published: 28 May, 2020

Such has been the upheaval wrought by the Covid pandemic that drinks businesses may have to remain agile in the longer term to meet a changed consumer landscape, with the days of specialism in one route or approach to market numbered.

Joe Fattorini: Branching out with bright ideas

Published: 26 May, 2020

Have you been on more video-conferencing calls than usual? Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, even venerable Skype – all seem to have found their moment. We can understand why now, but why not before? The marketer Rory Sutherland once suggested video conferencing never took off because it was “the poor man’s business travel”, not “the rich man’s phone call”. But lockdown life forces us to reframe our view of video conferencing. Today it’s everyone’s business travel. Today everyone sees its value.

Q&A: Rowena Curlewis, CEO & co-founder, Denomination

Published: 21 May, 2020

Designer Rowena Curlewis talks trends and packaging design in a post-pandemic world. Andrew Catchpole tunes in.

Change of pace: How Covid/climate pressures are accelerating innovation of packaging and design

Published: 20 May, 2020

With drinks fast evolving to meet consumer trends, design and packaging has an ever more important role in communicating change, writes Andrew Catchpole

The B2C shift: Driving it home

Published: 24 April, 2020

The coronavirus (Covid-19) has opened up a new world of B2C engagement for businesses offering a lifeline to consumers stuck inside their homes, as Jo Gilbert reports.