The Wine Society temporarily closes

By Lisa Riley

Published: 24 March, 2020

The Wine Society has taken the decision to stop taking new orders and also to stop making deliveries with immediate effect.

The move follows the Prime Minister’s ‘lockdown’ briefing last night.

“The statement was very clear that the single most important action we can all take in fighting coronavirus is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives,” said chief executive Steve Finlan in a statement to Wine Society members.

“I wholeheartedly support the need to do this and as a result we need our employees to stay at home. Many of our employees are already working from home, but this latest development means that our warehouse and transport operations will now be suspended,” he said.

While recognising that “many of you will be disappointed and some may not agree with our decision”, it was “simply impossible for us to argue that it is worth putting our employees at risk in order to deliver a non-essential service”, he added.

“I believe that this is the responsible action to take right now and I hope that most of you will agree.”

Due to the immediate closure, the business is unable to fulfil outstanding orders for the time being and said it wass uncertain for exactly how long this position would prevail.

“My team will start immediately to contact members about the status of their orders so that we can bring clarity to the situation,” said Finlan, adding its Member Services lines would not be taking inbound calls today but would reopen with a smaller home-based team tomorrow.

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