Wholesaler focus: A quality delivery

WAVERLEYTBS WAS formed in 2004 by Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) through the merger of two separate companies:Waverley and The Beer Seller (a firm it acquired with its purchase of the Bulmers business in 2003).

It was looking, in the words of S&N's managing director of the time, John Dunsmore, to create "the leading wholesaler with a beer and wine specialisation".Three years on it continues to succeed in the complex world of drinks logistics and supply.

Routes to market, for beer in particular, are being constantly analysed as pubcos and brewers look to cut costs. And many customers want locally-sourced goods (that also extends to beer), and are happy to simply have products delivered to their door by the producer.

One thing WaverleyTBS has made a conscious effort to improve is its cask ale business - the quality of storage and delivery and also the stock. S&N is a brewer that has come under fire from cask traditionalists for its lack of investment in the category (indeed, it recently farmed out brewing and distribution of its flagship Courage brands to Wells & Young's), so it is interesting to see WaverleyTBS - a company which is owned by S&N - putting such time and investment into cask. Here trade marketing manager Martin Breading explains its new cask strategy.

• Focus on quality: "The first angle we came at after the merger was quality and storage of our beer. So each of our sites now has refrigeration storage - over the last six years every new site has had it installed and those we've rebuilt have it too. It's all about improving the way we handle cask ale, which can be volatile."
• Need for a new strategy: "We installed our new strategy in the middle of last year following growing concerns over our cask beer sales. Before that our sales had been a lot better than the industry average. But they were starting to come into line with the general level of decline. So we got together as a team and decided to change our whole strategy."
• Less is more: "Previously we stocked 48 different cask beers and it wasn't possible to stock them all on one site. That led to problems - if we wanted to put together a promotional programme some brands would have to switch sites. It was problematic. We've now halved the number of beers we stock and it's working well. We have an availability of upwards of 85 per cent of all of our stock so now promotional beers and guest beers are doing very well for us - but they are just the icing on the cake. Our bread and butter is our permanent stockists.

"When we were refining our strategy we had a lot of meetings with brewers and that led to the opening of a central cask store at our Birmingham depot. This has really helped us keep on top of stocks of our promotional beers. Depots previously only got limited deliveries from brewers at the start of a promotion, but we always get the biggest sales in the first weeks so we always ran low. The new depot is always fully stocked so regional ones can ring Birmingham and get refills."

• Success of strategy: "We are now looking at a new innovation - Fresh Beer Overnight - which would allow us to do refrigerated deliveries overnight. That would transform our business even further from where we are now. The changes have already turned around the problems we were encountering. A nine per cent decline has turned into a one per cent increase in sales in only three months."
• Working with micros: "We are working much better with local and microbrewers. While their net has widened in recent years, they probably won't deliver beyond a 50-mile radius of the brewery. That is where we come in, as we can promote regionally, and it's really working. We have now dedicated the back pages of our promotional material to micro-brewed beers. We can get them into beer festival programmes and rotations of pub companies such as Mitchells & Butlers."
• Helping licensees directly - beer festivals: "The introduction of Noel Ryland as cask beer festival manager has enabled us to increase our beer festival business. "We will help produce literature for people putting on beer festivals, as well as themed promotions. We have now introduced 'off-the-shelf' beer festivals for licensees - we come up with themes, like sea-side festivals (using beers with seaside connections), and transport-themed festivals. We did more than 400 last year and I'm looking to double that this year.

Eventually I want to get Noel involved in helping licensees with dispense issues."We are launching a document at the end of July called The Cask Directory which will contain information on fault finding and staff training as well as tips on running beer festivals."We are introducing internal competitions between different depots - who is enjoying better sales, who has better availability? We have got a real cask agenda in the company now."

Matthew Clark​

Until recently Matthew Clark was widely seen as the wholesale arm of Constellation Europe - the biggest wine brand owner in the industry. However, this all changed following Punch Taverns deal in April to buy half of the wholesaler - a move that will surely hugely change the dynamic of the business.

One of the reasons speculated on for Punch's decision was its desire to get a closer relationship with a wine supplier, in these days of growing wine sales. We asked Robin Knapp - director of wine at Matthew Clark about the significance of the wholesaler in the pub wine market.

• Have wholesalers looked to work more closely with the on-trade in recent years?​ Oh, I think that desire has always been there. The vast majority of wholesalers sell to a very broad spectrum of customers. But the market has shifted. People are drinking less and better. Plus we have seen the massive influence of the supermarkets and that has fed into pubs. The role of the wholesaler is to recognise what is going in the marketplace and keep the publican happy. And the biggest area of interest for everyone is to drive more people up from standard house wine.
• Do you try and give licensees more skills to sell wine, or is all about what brands you offer?​ You do the first, definitely. What you try and do is give them suggestions to do things with merchandising, or interesting labelling or promotions. There are a lot of very good licensees out there with very good knowledge. But the vast majority do not have that and they want sound advice given in a non-pretentious way. They want a good range at reasonable prices together with good sales tools. Display is a hugely important issue and I am constantly fighting to get licensees to display their wines more. But they seem keener to display slower moving products like liqueurs!
• Has the relationship between wholesalers and the on-trade improved in recent years?​ I think wholesalers have got closer to the pub trade - certainly closer than it once was. And that is simply down to the increased popularity of wine. Our whole job is to make appropriate suggestions to the licensee. Is training appropriate to that particular outlet? Or if they are a very busy city centre pub then perhaps a look at merchandising would be more appropriate? It is horses for courses. We need to be in tune with the market. Do you focus on old or New World in a pub, or do we recommend focusing on a particular grape variety, like pinot grigio, the success of which has taken us all by surprise?
• How significant is the impact of supermarkets?​ I think all wholesalers and wine merchants would puff their chests out and say they have a big influence on all their customers' buying habits. But a far bigger influence is where members of the public are actually buying the majority of their booze, and that is in supermarkets. There are a lot of examples where supermarkets have done something first and that has then knocked on into the on-trade.
• How has Matthew Clark innovated to stay ahead of the competition?​ Well, we have done the Icon range of spirits which was undeniably ground-breaking. And as far as wi