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Joel Durand of Blackrock Cellar, which was named Dublin Off-Licence of the Year 2021, explains how the pandemic has transformed the team’s online offering, and shares some interesting insights on the store’s best-sellers

The NOffLA Dublin Off-Licence of the Year 2021 Award is sponsored by Bombay Sapphire (Edward Dillon)

STORE ORE PROFILE

Blackrock ock Cellar,Cellar,

23 23 RockRock Hill, Hill, Blackrock,Blackrock, Co.Co. Dublin Dublin StoreStore size:size: 350sq350sq m m Number Number of of staff:staff: 9-119-11 Opening Opening hours: hours: MondayMonday - SaturdaySaturday 10.30am-8pm;10.30am-8pm; SundaySunday and and bank bank holidaysholidays 12.30pm-8pm 12.30pm-8pm

Q: What are the factors that led to you winning a NOffLA Award and how do you stand out from competitors?

A: I think it’s mainly because from our opening nine years ago, we have been thriving at being different. ‘Not the usual’ has been and will always be our motto. That’s in the products we sell, the passionate staff as well as the look of the shop. It takes more work, time and cost. All the staff are on some level of WSET training and participate in shop-guided tastings as well as importers’ portfolio tastings, so their knowledge of our range is at a good level. It is important because we have an extensive range of fine wines, craft beers, spirits, cocktails and fine foods that is constantly renewing. You will rarely find all these in big multiples and vice versa.

With time, we have gained the trust of our customers that are now ready to listen to our friendly staff’s advice, trying different and newly discovered gems.

Q: How has Covid-19 affected your business and how have you navigated the challenges involved?

A: Like everybody, we had a challenging 18 months. It got really busy up to when we closed in early April at the first peak of the pandemic. It was getting very dangerous and we all needed a break to regroup and plan. After consulting with managers, we reopened two weeks later, working behind closed doors only doing deliveries or collection on a short four-day week from 12-6pm. We hired a shop driver for that period. Working (with a mask) behind closed doors is claustrophobic, needless to say the level of stress and temper was quite high and we had lots of discussions between us regarding what to do. We were happy to finally reopen slowly to a limited number of masked customers by mid-May. That was on a longer six days, 12-8pm Monday-Saturday schedule. We reopened on Sundays by the end of July 2020. Before Covid we used to close at 10 every evening but we have no plan to reopen that late. Our customer habits have changed, and we don’t see the need to be open that late anymore.

Due to the closure of pubs and restaurants during the ongoing lockdowns, we have been busier than normal and the three new staff members we hired last summer had lost their restaurant jobs. They replaced two staff that left us early in the pandemic and one that stayed on the payroll working from home on social media and our website.

At the start of 2020 we were looking at transforming our website from a webpage to an online shop so when Covid arrived we were caught a bit unprepared. Taking lots of orders and advising over the phone or by email is quite a different job to serving in-shop customers and we all had to learn new skills quickly. Meanwhile, with the help of our web designer, myself taking product pictures and a member of staff working from home, we installed most of the wines and beers on the future online shop. The website was finally turned on in October 2020.

I have to give credit to my staff who are amazing; it is not easy what they are doing and I’m very grateful they stuck with us during the whole period. In July last year we introduced a weekly Covid bonus risk on the wages that is still running today, it is the best decision we took during the pandemic for staff morale and retention.

Blackrock Cellar is renowned as a craft beer specialist with Kinnegar being the number one seller within that category

Q: What are your current bestselling brands/ranges in-store and why do you believe these products are proving popular?

A: As hinted earlier, big brands aren’t really our bread and butter. We are only keeping a necessary minimum to complete our selection; it is becoming a more and more marginal part of the business. When minimum pricing comes into play, we will only have

According to Joel Durand, customers are becoming more adventurous and at the higher end of the market, are not afraid to spend more on trying out a staff recommendation

one product to delist.

Regarding what sells, we have been a craft beer specialist from the start and in the beer section, that is what we overwhelmingly sell. Half the craft beers now sold are from independent Irish breweries with Kinnegar number one for a few years now. For the rest of the beer, classic German and Belgium are deservedly coming back to the fore in these past few years while the US and UK are down. Even if pale ale and IPAs are still strong, our customers are now moving away from them and getting more adventurous in their beer styles.

For wines, you can more or less take the national wine sale pyramid of top selling producer countries and turn it upside down to know what we sell the most. Chile is at the bottom and France on top, Spain second, Italy third. The tendency to buy better wine (and beer) has accelerated with the lockdown. There was a sense of: “Whatever happens at least I had a nice bottle’’. At the lower end, the customer is now spending the €2-3 extra to get a good wine compared to a budget one. At the higher end, people are getting more adventurous, and are not afraid to spend more trying something different that we have recommended. For example, South African or German Pinot Noir versus Burgundies. Rosé sales have increased five-fold in the past three years and customers don’t see a problem in spending as >>

Joel Durand of Blackrock Cellar says that ‘not the usual’ has been and will always be the store’s motto

>> much as for a good bottle of red or white.

For spirits, the two main growth areas are Irish whiskey, especially premium, and cocktails. In particular, the premade excellent premium cocktails from Craft Cocktails Ltd are a runaway success.

Q: What are the advantages of belonging to the National OffLicence Association?

A: The best thing about NOffLA is knowing your other independent colleagues; we exchange tips and trends that we have noticed, and they are nice people too. The National Off-Licence of the Year Awards is a friendly competition between us, it helps better ourselves and also gives a boost to the business if the shop wins something. It is nice being recognised by your peers too. NOffLA will keep you up to date with the latest legislation and drink industry trends. Finally, NOffLA is our voice at national level with the press and the political arena.

Q: How useful do you find social media in marketing your business?

A: We have been using social media from the start as it is mostly free. The biggest one has always been Twitter for us. All the craft beer scene is on it and information circulates quickly, such as when you have just received a new beer that you want to promote. Instagram is complementing Twitter very well. Google is a good tool too and it’s all free: make sure you include as much shop information as possible. The reviews we get there are very important to get the pulse of our customers and I always answer reviews. Usually, it’s a big thank you and a see you again soon. The odd time you will have to answer negative reviews. It’s time to think: what did we do wrong? We have been on Facebook too but that is now a bit of a dead page and there isn’t much activity around it.

As a complement to social media, we do a regular newsletter to our customer list with Mailchimp that is also free and a great tool.

We have been on Pointy (now part of Google) since they first started having the first off-licence on it. It was a good gap measure to show our products before having the online shop.

My favourite...

This month, Simon Andrews of Carry Out Tramore, Main Street, Tramore, Co. Waterford, which won the Best First Time Entrant 2021 at the annual NOffLA Awards, explains why Daithi O’Connell’s experimental whiskey and sherry offerings are ones to watch

Carry Out Tramore was the winner of the Best First Time Entrant 2021 in the annual NOffLA Awards sponsored by Champagne Ayala (Findlater & Co.)

Daithi O’Connell of W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants with Simon Andrews of Carry Out Tramore

W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants is a young and exciting independent whiskey company, based in Co. Waterford. The brand, spearheaded by founder Daithi O’Connell, launched at ‘Whiskey Live 2019’ and has attracted huge praise for its releases to date, which up until summer 2021 have been focused on the Irish and UK markets. Being a merchant allows Daithi the freedom to buy premium new make spirits and aged whiskies from multiple distilleries and apply his team’s own maturation and finish preferences. Furthermore, they source their own casks and mature and bottle the finished whiskies when they are ready.

WD O’Connell is a premium whiskey product; all releases so far being limited batch runs of anywhere between 350 to 600 bottles per release. Part of the portfolio’s core range is the ‘Bill Phil’ series, a triple distilled peated single malt, sourced from GND. Daithi’s eagerness to embrace and experiment with the largely ignored peated Irish whiskey sector only reflects his ambition and pioneering spirit for the company and its whiskeys. Bill Phil releases have seen the original Single Cask, Batch 1, Batch 2 and the first of the Bill Phil Cask Strength bottlings. We at Carry Out Tramore eagerly await the highly anticipated second expression of Bill Phil Cask Strength, due to retail summer 2021. To my mind, the journey of how these whiskeys develop and change over time under Daithi’s care is so exciting and to date, never disappoints. I was recently discussing the next release in the brand’s PX sherry series (the last expression being an 18yr old bottled at cask strength) with Daithi, which had been pencilled in for summer 2021 release. He playfully told me “No, I’m holding off on that one

W.D. O’Connell Whiskey Merchants has attracted huge praise for its releases to date

for a while longer… I’m just not 100% on that one yet…”

My personal favourite right now is the Single Malt 12yr old Sherry Series. Created in 2008 at Bushmills, it was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry butt for 12 years. An aroma of white pepper dusted dates, flaked almonds and crushed red grapes welcomes you before crystalised ginger, caramelised banana, clove spices and sherry-soaked raisins hit your palate. A long, balanced finish, with toasted oak, dark chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. Simply a stunning dram!

Daithi has huge ambition for the brand, with an upcoming release to the US, an online exclusive release partnering with Bruichladdich of Scotland, and a long-term target of being Ireland’s largest indie bottler by 2035! We at Carry Out Tramore are very proud to be associated with such a fabulous success story within the whiskey world!

NOffLA contacts

If you have any queries regarding NOffLA membership or services, please contact our administrator, Reggie Walsh, at Block D, Unit 6, Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14, by telephone on 01 - 296 2326, by fax on 01 - 296 2451 or by email at info@noffla.ie. The NOffLA website can be found at www.noffla.ie. ■