THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers
Issue 94, August 2020
Dog of the Month: Gary Batch Bottle Store, Altrincham
The Twisted Cork is the latest independent wine merchant to make its home inside a former shipping container. Read about Christine and Lee Longden’s new venture in Tiptree, Essex, on page six.
Indies can hang on to new trade Survey shows that most indies have recruited extra customers this year, and believe they can retain a third of them
O
ptimistic independents expect
to keep more than a third of the
new customers they’ve managed
to acquire since lockdown began in March, according to an exclusive survey carried
out by The Wine Merchant in association with Liberty Wines.
Two out of three respondents say
customer numbers have increased
during the lockdown period and into
the beginning of August. When asked to suggest how many of these new
customers would be retained once the
threat of Covid-19 has receded, the average prediction was 35.8%.
It could be argued that merchants are
now in a good position to gauge their long-term retention rate, with rivals
such as Majestic, The Wine Society and
supermarkets now trading more fluidly than they were in April and May.
Overall, the average sales growth
figure for the March to July period for all
respondents in the survey (including those who report a sales decrease) was 43.9%,
Continues page two