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Introduction
Latimer Vintners has successfully built out the business over the last decade. Founder and MD Michael Stobbs saw scope to optimise and scale the business further, so formulated with the team how they might go about nurturing long-term growth.
Wine-dedicated software was top of the list, to optimise performance “out of the box” and so free up time and budget toward more useful drivers for growth, such as diversifying their portfolio to broaden market reach.
Requirements
Having invested in a drinks system that required too much customisation to enable fine wine-specific processes, Latimer made it their number one criteria to find software that was designed for, and truly understood, a wine business.
They also needed a platform that could support flexible working, whether team-members were logging in from home or abroad. Coming from an installed on-premise environment that couldn’t seamlessly support remote access, that meant Cloud-hosted, software as a service (SaaS), was a base requirement.
Platform Selection
Having spoken to industry peers who had successfully migrated to the Wine Hub, Latimer were confident the Wine Hub, as industry-dedicated software, could bring the specialism they were looking for.
Also being Cloud-based software, the Hub is positioned perfectly to support flexible working and can be accessed whilst team members are travelling.
Since going live the team have highlighted, “The system is easy to use, which means new starters can get going straight away and it’s easily accessible off-site, so the team can access information anywhere and track what’s going on.”
Solution
Having experienced a challenging migration with previous software and knowing their current data would require cleaning, the smooth Wine Hub implementation was something of a relief, thanks to clear communication, wine-specific data migration processes and a highly structured approach.
Wine Hub has helped Latimer gain supply chain visibility (much needed with the pressures of Brexit, amongst other things) and improved operational efficiency.
“Supply chain visibility is really important to us and I think from an operational perspective, getting a snapshot of where we are with regards to all of our imports, or where we are with regards to getting wine out of our storage facility into client reserves, is going to support the bottom line. Having the necessary flexibility and visibility [of all those stock types and statuses] was something we really wanted, and moving over to the Hub has really benefited that.”
George Miller, Private Client Sales
From an operational perspective, Latimer had previously struggled to receive an accurate status on stock movements within the business, especially with regards to client reserves.
George confirms,
“So you couldn’t go to somebody and say ‘where are you with in-bond transfers’, because it was difficult to really know and I think that the Hub gives you a much clearer snapshot, whether it’s how quickly you are getting them out, or where you are with certain tasks within the workflow. That helps to be efficient and something that the Hub has really helped us with”.
Improved eCommerce
Previously Latimer had a website that was not connected to their business management platform, requiring separate log-ins and maintenance.
With a fully integrated WooCommerce set up (owing to the sophistication of the Hub Webshop integration layer), Latimer were immediately able to enjoy the operational benefits of treating eCommerce as a sales channel managed from one single, mastered view of inventory.
Margin Control
In a recent interview with George Miller, Private Client Sales, he discusses margin control, his experience with a volatile wine market, as well as the portfolio flexibility to be enjoyed by combining directly imported, exclusive stock with client reserves.
Full interview with George Miller
Access the full interview with George Miller, Private Client Sales at Latimer Vintners here.
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First floor,
2 Bleeding Heart Yard,
London EC1N 8SJ,
United Kingdom.