Bouncing Back Q&A: Miriam Spiers, Alliance Wine

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 05 August, 2021

It’s been a one-of-a-kind 18 months for the trade. Here, as we begin to push into the second half of the second year of the pandemic, Harpers is catching up with businesses to find out how they’re focusing on recovering from the shock, and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.

We continue our series with views from Miriam Spiers, on trade sales director at Alliance Wine.

How ‘back to normal’ are you as a business?

With all the Brexit related transport issues combined with UK Covid-related distribution challenges it doesn’t feel 'normal', but in terms of our business and volume of sales we are back and in fact way ahead of where we were in pre-pandemic trading of 2019.

What are your priorities and predictions for the second half of 2021?

The hope is that there will be more stable trading, fewer enforced Covid-related closures, and that people can start planning more longer term for their businesses. The unpredictability of the restrictions we’ve been working with across the various countries of the UK has meant we’ve had to remain flexible and any plans dynamic, with contingencies in place. However, it has also taught us new ways of doing things which we can adopt. The priorities are to listen to our customers, in all channels, build on the relationship we’ve maintained with them throughout the past year and a bit, and work with them to grow back and trade strongly together.

What kind of Christmas are you anticipating and how are you prepping?

We have been bringing as much stock to the UK as we can, as we want to have wine available for our clients when they need it and not en route. This is vital and preparation around Christmas stock build is key. We don’t want to let anybody down in terms of availability or service levels, so the teams have been focused on this. If trading continues as it is, we’d anticipate a solid Christmas sales period backed by targeted promotions and tasting activities.

Do you anticipate making a full recovery from the pandemic? What timeframes are realistic?

Yes, we hope to recover the on-trade completely by end of 2022 and have already exceeded 2020 trading in other channels.

How heavily have you been impacted by staffing issues?

We have our own warehouse so fortunately we’ve been able to manage staffing with careful shift-rotation and following strict Covid guidelines to avoid the risk of full closure. Most customer services and other departments have been working from home so overall it has been ok for us so far. As a business, we were all in this together and every department without exception has played their part to get us to where we are now.

Are you anticipating more Covid-related restrictions?

Sadly yes, but who knows what or when.

How have drinking habits changed post-lockdown?

Our sales mix has changed slightly but drinking habits not so much. Customers are still looking for interest and quality, however average spend per bottle has increased, with many happy to spend a little bit more on their wine purchases.

Lastly, if you could make one change in government tomorrow, what would you choose?

Having a stronger voice for our industry.

Quick-fire questions:

France, Spain or Italy?

Spain

USA or OZ?

Port or Sherry?

Sherry

English bubbles or Champagne?

Champagne

Go-to drink to watch with the Olympics / tennis?

Tennis has to be Provence rosé. Olympics – maybe Sake?