London Wine Fair pledges £40k to attract indies and on-trade

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 27 January, 2014

As part of a shake-up of London Wine Fair to refocus on the UK market and attract top names from across the independent and on-trade, organisers are spending £40,000 in travel and accommodation costs for them.

Both sectors were identified as priority targets in the fair's revised UK-targeted strategy for 2014, and 100 from each sector, coming from outside of the M25, will receive travel assistance. Those within London will also be entitled to travel expenses.

Lunches will be held on-site at Olympia for each of the groups, with the on-trade invited on Monday June 2 and retailers on June 3. The fair organisers are calling for exhibitors to nominate buyers and key influencers from both sectors and the final target list will be drawn from these nominations.

Event director Ross Carter said: "2014 is all about a return to the roots of the UK wine trade. If we are to successfully engage with those independents and sommeliers for whom expense has been a barrier to attending in the past, then we need to incentivise them with these bursaries and also, of course, relevant and tailored content."

In recent years, the event was dogged with criticism over its location, content and attendees. It rebranded itself late last year, and a raft of UK agents and importers absent from previous years came back on board.

The first phase of booking, which went live in Spetember, saw 85% of allocated space for this phase reserved within an hour.

Twenty companies have committed to return to the London Wine Fair following an absence of at least a year: Accolade, Australian Vintage, De Bortoli Wines UK, Buckingham Schenk, Enotria, Eurowines, Hallgarten Druitt, Mentzendorff, Patriarche Wine Agencies, PLB and Stevens Garnier.

London Wine Fair takes place at Olympia from June 2 to 4, 2014.

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