Drinks giant caught out over leaked email

Bosses at drinks giant Constellation have been left red-faced after a leaked email revealed they are encouraging employees to buy the firm's own products to gain a multimillion-pound contract.

The company is aiming to win the right to exclusively supply house wine to the 650 Wetherspoon pubs across the UK.

To help secure the contract, the firm's managing director Steve Thompson and senior vice president Peter Spencer emailed employees urging them to buy its wine from Wetherspoon pubs and claim the money back on expenses.

Staff have been asked to buy Hardys Nottage Hill Chardonnay and Shiraz and Echo Falls, which are supplied by Matthew Clark Wholesale - part of the Constellation Europe business.

The email to employees read: "To date we have had a poor response to our invitation to get all employees to visit their local JD Wetherspoon outlet and purchase Nottage Hill Chardonnay & Shiraz (and Echo Falls in the Bristol area) and reclaim via expenses.

"We would implore each of you to participate in this activity as it is vitally important that we maximise volumes."

However a statement from Constellation claimed the wines were being trialled at Wetherspoon pubs and employees were being asked to participate in a "mystery shopper type exercise".

The company said it had issued a letter originally about the exercise and the email was "for the purpose of maximising employee participation in this activity".

A Wetherspoon spokesman said: "While we are more than happy to serve employees from Matthew Clark in our pubs, we would not wish to be associated with any activities which might influence our decision on choosing the specific wine."