“Sometimes you need new ideas and insights from outside to really make a difference.” That’s how Lucie Parker described her role when she first joined Jeroboams from Liberty Wines in 2021 to head up its wholesale division - rebranded as Jeroboams Trade - with the clear objective of not just upgrading its offer, but making sure it was delivering what premium on-trade buyers and sommeliers are looking for from their core suppliers.
Four years later and the Jeroboams Trade division is a very different proposition. Revamped and re-positioned to an exclusive agency model where it is working towards every wine and producer in the Jeroboams’ trade portfolio being exclusive to the group.
It has taken a lot of work behind the scenes to assess, analyse and re-structure its wine portfolio to ensure it is working with the right producers totally aligned with Jeroboams’ new exclusive agency model.
Lucie Parker is excited about the opportunties moving to an exclusive agency model gives Jeroboams and its customers
It has also seen Parker move into a wider role as sales director to not only spearhead the change in strategy, but also put in the processes and steps needed to ensure its exclusive producer partners are well looked after on one side of the business, and its on-trade customers are being as best served as they can on the other.
It has seen 15 new agency producers come into the business where it felt it needed to be exclusively represented - and that process continues “on and on,” says Parker.
Jeroboams' managing director Matt Tipping says moving to an exclusive agency model is key to its short and long term success
It has also been able to go to producers it was working with, but not an exclusive basis and ask if they would like to move to this more mutually beneficial agreement, adds Matt Tipping, who joined from Berry Bros & Rudd in 2016, but who also continues to bring those all important “new ideas and insights” into the company.
When choosing which producers to bring in, the team need to consider if their wines can work both in the on-trade and in retail and, where possible for its private clients; but at least two of those boxes need to be ticked.
From a trade point of view, the producer’s wine styles need to fit into what Parker calls the “Jeroboams’ flavour” where there is a common theme running through the styles of wines in its on-trade portfolio.
By that she means “wines with character and a real sense of place” which she stresses might all taste very differently, but they each have their own individual characteristics.
She says it was “hugely rewarding” to have wine writer and critic Matthew Jukes approach her at this year’s Jeroboams portfolio tasting and note a clear sense of cohesion running through the wines. “Rather than a shared tasting profile, they all carry a thematic one,” she explains.
Maggie Macpherson group wine buyer across the Jeroboams' business
That lens is applied by the buying team - led by group buyer Maggie Macpherson - who each focus on specific countries or regions and are fully immersed in the producers they represent.
“It means every buyer owns their part of the portfolio and can speak to it confidently across all channels,” she adds.
Jeroboams’ buying team brings deep expertise to that approach: Peter Mitchell MW sets the overall direction as wine director, with Maggie Macpherson overseeing the broader portfolio. Martin Tickle leads on fine wine with particular focus on Burgundy and Bordeaux; James Phillips covers emerging wine regions of Portugal, England, Greece, and Austria; and Rose Saunders and Kathy Hodgkinson handle broking and fine food respectively.
"It’s a collaborative model that ensures every bottle on the list is there with intent - whether for trade, retail, or private clients,” says Parker.
Quality first
Tipping is also quick to stress the one big theme that runs throughout its business and “routes to market” is its "quality focus,” This does not mean concentrating on high end wines, but ensuring each wine in its range is the best quality they can find at that price point.
Hence why it is drawn to producers that are committed to taking long-term decisions about their properties and quality of their vines.
“If you have got quite similar thinking then you are going well together long-term. If you work with a producer that is not on the same wavelength as you it is always going to be hard work,” he adds. “You have got to have a meeting of minds.”
“There has to be a level of care in what they do across all aspects for us to want to work with them,” adds Parker.
Jeroboams is looking to raise sales across its three core businesses: private clients; trade; and retail
Whilst the size and family-owned culture of Jeroboams leans itself more to similar family-owned producers it also does have exclusive relationships with larger volume players in order to offer the commercial and house wines that are so important to their on-trade customers.
“It’s the joy of this business that you get to work across such a wide range of producers and businesses,” says Parker.
“We have got lots of exciting plans to grow and part of that will be bringing in new producers,” she adds.
A key area of focus for the buying team is Champagne - with Jeroboams very much on the lookout for an agency Champagne. There are also areas of France where it is looking to tighten its range.
“We are always open to new things from anywhere. I don’t think anyone can stand back and say we have the perfect portfolio,” says Parker.
It is particularly proud of the exclusive producers it is now working with from the New World with a strong selection from California, Australia and New Zealand in particular. It has also recently brought Argentina’s Achaval Ferrer into the group as well.
Deeper relationships
Tipping adds: “Some of our producer relationships go back 20 to 30 years. When you are a family company and you are working with other family companies you can have those really long-term relationships that really work.”
Moving to an exclusive agency model also means it is now able to dig even deeper into those relationships and work closely with those producers to draw up a distribution strategy for them in the UK. “That has been quite a big change for us as a business,” he says.
“The work that Lucie and the trade team have been doing means we are distributing those wines better than we ever have done.”
Jeroboams has bulit long standing relationships with its producer partners like Laurent Perrier - here are Chris Lewis, Michael Robins, Emily Galletly, Lucie Parker, Robert Manners and Simon Watson with Laurent Perrier on a recent visit
It means it is also able to work far closer with its key on-trade customers and suppliers and host tastings and dinners with its producer partners and help drive those relationships, says Parker.
To help really manage that side of things Jeroboams brought in Marloes Klijnsmit two years ago as its new dedicated, experienced brand manager to help organise more of those kinds of events and get wines in front of the right people.
“That’s been a big shift as well,” says Parker. “Everyone in the on-trade is so stretched at the moment, so if you can help them the loyalty you get is amazing as you are supporting their business.”
Marloes also works alongside Jeroboams’ wine director, Peter Mitchell MW, to help co-ordinate and run a constant on-trade training programme for on-trade customers and its teams to better understand the wines they are supplying them.
That ambassador-type role is something the company is also looking to introduce in terms of the regional wholesalers and partners it is working with. Companies that can go out and represent Jeroboams and its producer partners with their customers around the country, says Tipping.
“We can give people that bit of room to work with us.”
Regional merchant relationships
Lucie Parker and Matt Tipping are proud to be in the top 10 of Harpers Best 5O Indies
It is also developing more regional sales and contacts around the country and hopes, in particular, to forge closer ties with the strong regional independent wine merchants where they can benefit from their close relationships with their agency partners, both in terms of the selection of wines and access to top winemakers.
Tipping hopes the strong regional independent merchants can also hopefully better relate to them versus other suppliers, as they are retailers too - crucially not in their trading area - and fully understand the pressures and costs they have to deal with. “We get it as well,” he adds.
“That knowledge of us is changing,” says Parker, within the independent merchant sector, and she, Tipping and the rest of the team are enjoying forging closer ties with regional indies.
“Being part of that community and peer group, and having people we can talk to and share problems and find opportunities with, is really beneficial to us personally as well,” says Tipping. “There is a lot of common ground there.
Jeroboams is also quite rightly part of that independent merchant community itself and Parker says it was proud to be featured in the Top 10 of Harpers recent Top Merchants in the UK poll. “That was a very good feeling. At heart we know we are in the right place with the right people.”
It has also been able to work closely with the WSTA, alongside other top independent wine merchants, to get across the key trading areas where they most need its support.
It is an area it is committed to playing its full part in and for Jeroboams to be seen as front and centre of the independent wine merchant community.
“The wines are good and the services are good - it is just getting that messaging across,” says Tipping.
“It is the hardest bit,” agrees Parker. “For people to recognise our name and make that association.”
Group impact
Jeroboams is working closer with its private clients to access some of their wines for the trade
It also plays well with what the wider group is able to deliver with its strong retail and private client arms.
As Tipping says it is talking to and serving these consumers every day in their network of 10 stores across London and getting their immediate feedback on what they are looking to buy, and how much, crucially, they are willing to spend and how often.
“We have that direct consumer feedback that others don’t have. It means the wines that we are putting on to restaurants’ wine lists is right first time and that we are giving them the right wines by the glass,” says Tipping.
“Especially if that restaurant happens to be in one of our communities, where we know the people going into those restaurants. The fact our sales team have that knowledge from the retail stores gives us a real point of difference.”
Parker says it is looking to strengthen that local connection even more by encouraging customers to bring their restaurant bills into a local Jeroboams shop where they can be offered a discount - and vice versa when going out to eat in a local restaurant. Or work with restaurants to run BYO deals if customers buy their wine from the local Jeroboam’s store.
It is also looking to get more stores to run special tastings in a local restaurant where they can help bring them some extra business.
Equally it is looking to integrate its private client customers more into the other sides of the business, particularly in sourcing in-demand back vintages from classic wine regions which private customers may have in their cellars. Wines that Jeroboams can buy from them and then sell into its retail and on-trade arms.
“We have access to back vintages and stock that others don’t have,” says Tipping, at a time when restaurants are finding it harder and harder to find back vintages at the right prices.
“That is something we want to build on,” adds Parker. “More access to drinking fine wine to sell to the trade. People with money and people who want to go out want to buy wine that is ready for drinking -we are seeing that across the trade. It’s a good string to our bow.”
Whilst accessing the private client side of the business has always been an opportunity for Jeroboams there is now a clear strategy to fully maximise its potential across the group and look at new ways in which the three sides of the business can work together, and it can access rare fine wines for its own shops and its on-trade customers.
“We have got regular offers going out for wines we are looking for,” says Tipping, which is backed up by internal lists that sales teams can access that show what wines and vintages are available to sell back into the trade.
“There are lots of strings to that which we are trying to pull together,” he adds.
Balanced business
Jeroboams is now positioned to drive closer relationships with its on-trade and independent merchant customers
Tipping says that interactivity between the three sides of its business has been a key part in its recent sustained growth which has seen the company increase its revenues to £35.5m, returning £8.5m in profit in its last reported figures in 2023.
Of that £35.5m, shops now account for 20%-25%, private client sales 35-40% and trade sales 35-40% with slight variances year to year.
Over the last five years there has been a slight shift with private client and trade sales increasing their share of the business, but with all three sides of the business showing good growth years, says Tipping.
There are now plans underway that will see further growth, in particular, on the private client and trade side of the business.
The increase in trade and private client sales means there is now a bigger focus within its sales and marketing towards those facets of the business compared to what was more of a shop-first strategy five years ago, adds Parker.
“It’s been really healthy for the business for the private sales and trade sides to be growing,” she adds.
Tipping says as a business “we really like having more than one route to market” as not only does it offer an opportunity to sell wine to so many more potential customers, but it also breeds a culture of collaboration and cross-collaboration of ideas and knowledge.” Then there is the “level of security” it also brings to the company which is even more important for a family business looking at the long term.
He says the business is particularly proud of its shops and how they have become such an integral part of the communities they are in. They have also helped “inspire other parts of the business” and he is extremely pleased to see how its private client and trade divisions are now fully working with, and alongside, its retail shops to offer the best quality wines and level of service to their combined customer base.
“As we grow, we intend to keep the balance within the business,” says Tipping.
The level of “time and effort” it has invested in its trade division “will continue” and it will next “look to make investments in private sales to keep that moving” with the potential of adding two to three new retail outlets as well.
“That will naturally shape the future of the business as well.”
In terms of looking forward Tipping describes the company as being “restless”. “We don’t accept things the way they are, we are always looking to improve and that is a real cultural piece that runs through the business. That restlessness makes us improve.”
* You can find out more about Jeroboams Trade at its website here.
* Jeroboams Trade is a commercial partner to The Buyer.
* Jeroboams will be hosting a 40th birthday party at Banking Hall in London on September 9 between 5pm-8pm. Tickets are available for £60. Click here for more details.
