How a mid-sized business managed to pivot their entire business model by becoming B2C in a matter of weeks.
Tell us about your organisation
Enotria&Coe (E&C) is a leading premium wine and spirits wholesaler in the UK, with an expertise in premium bars, hotels, events and restaurants. The business also serves the off-trade market (e.g. Co-op, Waitrose, Tesco) and has a retail outlet in Bath with a growing ecommerce platform - Great Wine Company. E&C employs 300 people and has approximately £180m of revenues with 85% of this business coming from the on-trade (e.g. bars, restaurants, cafes, etc).
What challenges were you trying to address?
Hospitality is a very fragmented and competitive market, with the casual dining sector under particular pressure, with many companies having gone through company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) in recent times. On top of that, in response to COVID, the government closed most of E&C’s customers for four months. So, how does a business with large fixed costs survive this period and try to pivot to emerging opportunities?
Some of the challenges the business faced were substantial:
- 90% of the business’ profit contribution comes from restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs and clubs
- Our business was heavily reliant on customers that would be impacted the longest (e.g. travel, hotels, cruises, large eve
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