Market Update

First printed in Checkout Magazine   

Small is big at Booths

Booths Supermarkets is sourcing more unusual wines from smaller producers and extending its focus on organics in a bid to compete with the major multiples, writes Fiona Briggs .

Sally Holloway: organic focus

The business, which trades from 26 stores in the north-west of England, claims to be selling more wine off-promotion than on and is encouraging customers’ to widen their repertoires via tastings.

Booths has also added a SMS text facility for its website, [w=http://www.everywine.co.uk]www.everywine.co.uk[/w], which lists 27,000 wines available for purchase in cases of six or 12 bottles. The new service will allow customers to text the name of a wine they may be enjoying in a restaurant or at a party and Booths will respond with information on price and availability.

The supermarket’s core wine range, available through its stores and in mixed cases from www.booths-wine.co.uk, comprises 700 lines with a focus on less well known brands. “We are always trying to source more unusual wines from Europe and from smaller producers and we are specifically looking at organic wines this year,” said wine buyer Sally Holloway.

Organic wines featuring in the Booths’ portfolio include a 2005 Domain de Pajot Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne (£4.79) and a 2005 Beaujolais Villages Domaine des Côtes de la Moliere (£5.99).

“Organics is certainly a growth area in terms of food and people are thinking more about what they drink as well,” said Holloway. “Customers want products that are more authentic and have provenance. You can’t do local sourcing in terms of wine but you can replicate that by looking to smaller producers.”

Holloway said this policy helped Booths compete with the multiples and establish more obscure wines such as Chateau de Beranger Picpoul de Pinet, Cave Coop de Pomerols, which “customers just keep buying”.

Holloway revealed Booths’ wine sales were up 14% in the last year with 40% of business generated from promotions.

“We don’t want that 40% to creep up,” she said. “Promotions are very important but you have to be a bit more imaginative – there are things you can promote that are really credible. Deep cut promotions are within the mix but there’s a mix, we are not reliant on them.”

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