Looking Ahead: Andrew Bewes, Hallgarten & Novum Wines

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 21 August, 2019

As the first half of 2019 draws to a close, Harpers asked key trade figures to highlight the current challenges, ongoing trends and opportunities.

We continue our series with insights from Andrew Bewes, managing director, Hallgarten & Novum Wines

How has the first half of 2019 been when compared to the same period in 2018?

The first half of the year has been very positive for Hallgarten with sales up by value and volume across all sectors. As we all know, it’s not been an easy trading environment but against the previous year when we had to cope with the effects of the Beast from The East and the start of the World Cup, it has (and should have been been) positive for us. Our like-for-like trading figures do reflect just how tough our customers are finding the market, so for us winning new business has played a vital role in our success thus far.

What were the highs and lows for your own business in the first six months of 2019?

Highs: H1 results, seeing the team pull together on all fronts, and successfully fulfilling the expectations of both Goodwood Festival of Speed and Royal Ascot in June, the latter of which saw sales increase by 16.4% in value compared with 2018.

Lows: Having to spend quite so much time on Brexit, which included postponing the usual excitement of introducing new elements to our portfolio in February.

What, currently, are the biggest challenges for the trade?

The uncertainties surrounding our departure from the EU certainly remain at the top of the list of immediate industry challenges. Most pertinently, as we head towards the biggest trading period of the year with the Pound is at its lowest point, unless we see a turnaround ahead of October 31 it will be difficult to envisage many of us being able to continue to hold prices through to the end of the year without a massive effect on our own businesses. With restaurants and retailers largely wanting to set their Christmas pricing by the end of September, this issue is certainly front of mind as we come out of the summer holiday season.

Away from the B-word, our biggest challenge is undoubtedly how we, as the wine industry, respond to the ‘experiential’ challenge laid down by premium spirits, namely how we create and enhance the experience of buying and enjoying wine in an on trade environment. Until we start to really grapple with this, we will continue to see wine consumption decrease.

Will you be preparing in any way for a second potential ‘no deal’ Brexit day on 31 October and, if so, how?

We have made preparations for all eventualities. For a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, this largely this boils down to building our UK stock levels to ensure that we can cope with several weeks of delayed shipments coming in from around the world. Running out of stock in the first half of the year would have been inconvenient; running out of stock in November and December is unthinkable!

Taking current trading conditions into account, what’s your strategy for meeting those challenges during the second half of the year, leading up to the crucial Christmas trading period?

More of the same – we will work ever more closely with our customers to ensure that our partnership drives an increase in their profits on wine. This means more thought behind their range, combined with more and more emphasis on building front-of-house confidence through our professional MW-led training team.

We are constantly evaluating our business proposition to ensure that we meet the needs of our core customers; we will be announcing some new appointments over the next few weeks which will take these partnerships to the next level.

What will the focus be on with regard to your portfolio (and any updates) and why?

One of our lows in the first half of the year was the tough decision not to introduce our normal number of new wines and producers to our portfolio. This was a pragmatic decision based on the need to prioritise our stock-build for the original Brexit date. On the back of a very successful first half year, however, I am delighted to say that Steve Daniel and team will be bringing in an exciting new range in September; the introductions include: our first foray into Armenia and Georgia, the world’s most iconic producer of Marsanne, Chile’s most accoladed wine range, some funky little numbers from the Loire and Roussillon, dynamite wines from Etna, a major Portuguese producer, South Africa’s top Chenin producer and yet more ravishing wines from Spain.

There will be almost 100 new wines and plenty for all areas of the market to get their teeth stuck into. Given the tough trading environment we have ensured that over half of these new wines can be sold to our customers under £10 dpd.

For you, what are the most significant emerging trends in the drinks world?

For the UK it is the remarkable growth of the premium gin market – up 60% year on year according to the latest stats. Whilst this doesn’t change my position on Hallgarten remaining a wine-only specialist (our customers need specialist expertise and partnership more than ever), it does mean that we need to learn lessons! The UK consumer is prepared to pay more for a drink if they perceive that their experience will be enhanced; we need to latch on to this and push the boundaries of how wine is sold and merchandised.

What innovations in the drinks world do you believe will have the most impact going forward?

Wine packaging, from the more obvious environmental perspective, but also to satisfy the commercial demand for us to enable our on-trade customers to continue to offer credible wines at below £20 (and, down the track £25) per 75cl equivalent, then we and our customers will need to embrace alternative packaging.

What, for you, would make for a perfect summer?

My summer was largely made last month when we took home the IWC Merchant Wine List of the Year award for the third time in four years and sailed through our first ISO14001 annual inspection! Our ISO and Investors in People projects have galvanised my team behind a common cause like nothing I have experienced before; great stuff, particularly as the majority of our innovative ideas and initiatives have come from the team itself.

Apart from this, my perfect summer would be learning of a sudden and completely inexplicable strengthening of Sterling, whilst I sit by the pool with a large glass of the award-winning Hampton Water Rosé from Gérard Bertrand, Jesse Bongiovi and Jon Bon Jovi!

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