We gave it our best shot. But the new Co-op was the last straw

Anthony and Janet Borges have owned The Wine Centre at Great Horkesley, Essex, for a quarter of a century. But two years of losses means it’s time to call it a day, as Anthony explains

Finally, we have decided to close our Great Horkesley shop. We anticipate closing sometime in the summer after our clearance sale, which started in late May.

The shop has been a wine merchant for 60 years, 24 under our stewardship. Until recently, and for almost all those years, we thrived. We grew incrementally every year, adding streams of revenue to our core drinks business, such as Riedel glassware, the deli, cigars, and events.

When the children flew the nest we annexed our house, which is adjacent to the shop, transforming our lounge and study into the Gift Room, selling fashion, handbags, jewellery and toiletries.

We added fashion shows and ladies’ lunches to our increasingly successful events programme. Our wine-tasting dinners and festivals were by then a feature of the village, drawing customers from all around.

We started to win awards, both local and national, including the prestigious New Zealand Wine Growers’ UK Independent Wine Merchant of the Year award. A trip we will never forget. We were invited to swanky Riedel dinners, and we enjoyed the trappings of success in our wonderful industry, which, as we know, is blessed with fine people, doing great things. Best of all, we made friends, and a life of it all, with wine, our passion, at the heart of it.

That’s not to say we didn’t have difficult times. We did. But throughout all the challenges we always held our nerve, maintaining what was always a highmargin, service-orientated business. Sometimes the temptation was great, to cave in and partake in the discount culture surrounding us. But always we resisted. Then came Covid 19 which saw the closure of The Gift Room, and this was followed by the cost-of-living crisis. In such times the allure of discount is potent, and sure enough a Co-op opened just up the road from us, offering discounts galore. Colchester’s Majestic had already eaten into our sales, as had the local Waitrose, but now this was on our doorstep.

We responded by increasing our events, which were ever popular, and a year or so ago we introduced for the first time a 20% discount “for seasonal wines”: we’d buckled, finally.

We called the in-store feature “Twelve Wines”, limiting the discount to a few. At the same time, we spent £5,000 improving our website, and we took on a shop manager to bring in new blood. Lucy proved to be excellent, motivating us all.

In short: we met the cost-of-living crisis head on.

And yet, the business has just chalked up its second consecutive annual loss, and our incomes have shrunk to the point we simply can’t go on. Despite our love for what we do, and even in the face of our community’s desire that we keep going, we choose retirement. For us, as new grandparents, we feel it is time.

We reflect endlessly on our sudden, brutal demise. Was there anything we could have done to have prevented it? For a while we felt aggrieved. During Covid we had done well, because so many people staying home had brought us new custom. Yet when those new faces returned to work, we didn’t see them anymore.

When we were able to start up our events again, a few came back, and we always sold out. But these were costneutral, and we always depended on our customers buying wine afterwards. The problem was they were not doing that anymore in the numbers we needed. Those who did purchase did so from our 20%off selection. Therefore, not only did our turnover drop, so did our overall margin.

We wonder why more people in our neighbourhood didn’t support us. If only fewer people turned to the internet, the national multiples, and the big merchants. Far too many would comment at Christmas how they loved the shop, and then we wouldn’t see them until the next Christmas.

Then again, why should they buy from us? If we are not doing what it takes to win their custom, then surely we shouldn’t complain about it. Certainly, we shouldn’t judge them, right? It’s up to us, as independents, to shine, and to compete.

When we lost the Gift Room, we lost a big draw and footfall to our shop from which we didn’t ever recover. This was an unfortunate circumstance of Covid. In this respect our shop is not necessarily reflective of the industry and independents elsewhere. There’s life in the sector, we have no doubt. And we wish you all well.

At any rate we leave our industry this summer with mixed feelings, but also with an overriding sense that we have served our community well, and that now it’s our time. And there it is. We wouldn’t have done any of it without our fantastic suppliers. Therefore, it remains for us to thank all of you who have served us, for the many happy years, and especially thanks to Peter Rowe of Liberty Wines, for his unstinting support of late.

And we applaud The Wine Merchant for the editorials, updates, chat, gossip, news, stats; for the tastings, the trips, and for the promotion and encouragement you give our sector. It’s hard now to imagine indie life without the magazine.

Cheers, everyone!

Robert