Cool place. Trendy. Old warehouse. Bare old bricks. Bare wood. Bare steel. Bare pipes and wires.
Perfect size though. I love an office where everyone can see each other. Last time we were here there were just five people. Ten times that now. But still feels cozy. I'd like to work here.
But this is a one day visit to meet everyone and learn what they are up to. Ade Bentham - who started in our old railway arch in Windsor 25+ years ago runs the operation. Seems to be having the time of his life. Because the business is growing so fast. It's about 20% of our business now. So wonderful to be selling wine in a country where the government isn't intent on strangling you with taxes. Incredibly low wine tax here.
However in America wine selling is v. highly regulated. Every State has different rules. So we ship to affiliated retailers to deliver on to customers. Quite complex. But we have a specialist team who ensure it works well.
We are now working with 58 excellent Californian wineries. We have only brought a couple of their wines to the UK so far e.g. Sonoma Stones Cabernet Sauvignon and Tangent Viognier. We will bring more soon. The Wall Street Journal Annual Dozen Case is perhaps the finest showcase of US wines there is. We put that together with them. I'd dearly love to bring those wines to Britain. If they have any to spare.
Meanwhile our new American customers seem to like pretty much the same non-US wines as our British customers.
Knackering but inspiring day.
Dinner at 'The Napa', Stamford. Speeches. The 'Special Relationship' particularly special this night. Fell asleep on hotel front porch. Rocketman took the girls night paddling in the sea.
Visit laithwaites.co.uk
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