Red Squirrel Wine

I believe that Red Squirrel Wine offers a personal service the likes of Tesco simply can't. Tesco offers a range of wines that I would never contemplate stocking. We might be fishing in the same generalised pool of 'wine drinkers' (and as a national online wine retailer with customers spread as far and wide as Tesco, in that sense we have more in c... ommon than Tesco does with a high street independent). However, we aren't fishing for exactly the same customers all of the time. I am never going to presume customers should get all their wine from us. The innovative Red Squirrel Wine boxes are designed to supplement the midweek pasta supper plonk, not replace it entirely. It would be foolhardy to presume otherwise. There are times when supermarkets will encroach, such as when Waitrose knavishly claims a wine is "exclusive" to them despite our stocking it at the time along with several other independent wine merchants (they continue to claim so and refuse to provide any explanation why). Supermarkets are also aggressively promoting their own online offerings (though at no minimum order and free delivery over £60, Red Squirrel Wine's delivery terms are far more competitive than Waitrose's minimum order of 12 bottles). Even then, I don't wake up in the morning in a cold sweat about supermarkets. Red Squirrel Wine's competitors are, quite naturally, other independent wine merchants - and above all, other online wine merchants. The chances of our collectively ever selling 80 per cent of wine in the UK are as likely as Nigerian sparkling wines sweeping the Concours Mondial. Yet that isn't the aim or the point. The types of wines we source at Red Squirrel Wine aren't made in the sort of quantities such ambitions would necessitate - in which case you could argue our products and Tesco's products are essentially incomparable. To sum up, James Hall is right. Blaming big players like supermarkets is lazy and self-defeating. We aren't going to turn back the clock. However successful Red Squirrel Wine or competitors are, the ...Read More