Alliance Wine opens London office to grow on-trade sales

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 09 June, 2014

Alliance Wine is opening an office in London to boost its sales into the capital's on-trade and south east market.

The office will be located in Bermondsey Street in south London and wine development director Giles Cooke MW said the trade should "expect to see Alliance's activity level and profile increase around London and elsewhere" as a result.

Cooke told Harpers.co.uk that many of the marketing and buying functions now took place from London, adding that the firm needed a more permanent base away from its Scottish headquarters. He said the new office would offer greater scope to cater for the "next phase of the London market".

There are now 12 staff, out of the 60-strong firm, working out of London, and Cooke said Alliance's sales director travels down every week. Cooke will now also visit once a week or fortnight to add more guidance at director level.

Alliance Wine targets growth in London and south east. Giles CookeAlliance Wine’s Giles Cooke MW says the firm’s new London office will boost its profile and activity levels.

"The core focus for us is independents and the UK on-trade as well as developing our international channels," outlined Cooke. The group has wine projects in Australia, Spain, the south of France and Italy, and has just started in South America in Chile and Argentina. "It's quite a fundamental part of our business model, which adds value for UK customers and gives us the ability to trade outside of the UK."

But he stressed that the wine production side of the business would never be the firm's "entire story", adding that it would continue to champion its existing clients and new regions.

Sustainability is going to be the next big thing for the wine trade, Cooke believes, "there is already a lot of noise around natural or lower intervention wines in the on-trade".

"We've always bought good wine and if it's natural or organic then well and good. But now it's about time to make more of an issue of sustainability in terms of how it's made and sold."

Alliance Wine is celebrating its 30^th birthday this year.

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