WaverleyTBS: Suppliers pick up extra business after pubs struggle to fill orders

09-Oct-2012 - Last updated on 10-Oct-2012 at 11:12 GMT

Drinks wholesalers and suppliers have been picking up extra business in the wake of the WaverleyTBS failure as pub companies have struggled to fill their wine and spirits orders.

WaverleyTBS was placed into administration last week with 685 redundancies after Deloitte failed to find a buyer for the business.

Drinks suppliers are advertising their business to former Waverley clients and there is a lot of pressure to get supply chains reestablished as soon as possible.

Mark Aylwin, managing director of Booker Direct, said: “There has been an increase in demand following WTBS’s liquidation. Our branches are supplied on a daily basis so we have been able to replenish quickly and build up additional stock.”

Molson Coors Wholesale said it was boosting its stock levels on wines and spirits. Director of customer experience Miller Fitzgerald said: “This is a very difficult time for a significant number of pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the UK, and an awful situation for Waverley employees. At Molson Coors Wholesale we have taken the precaution of boosting our stock levels – particularly wine and spirits. We’re working hard to ensure that licensees have all the support that they require in the short term and provide a stable long term relationship.”

While Bibendum’s managing director Michael Saunders told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser sister title Harpers: “We are responding to enquiries as and when they come in, and we are doing everything we can to help. Obviously this is a very difficult time, and our thoughts are with the staff at WaverleyTBS.”

While Ian Smith, Matthew Clark’s commercial director, also told Harpers that Matthew Clark to quickly respond to the needs of former WaverleyTBS customers.

Pubco Enterprise Inns is currently working to find a new supplier for its wine and spirits after it ceased trading with WaverleyTBS from 8th October 2012. It has allowed its licensees to buy outside the tie so they can continue trading.

A spokesman said: “Since that date we have been working hard to find an alternative supplier for the products in question and are confident that we will re-establish that supply shortly”.

Meanwhile, Dave Evans of London-based Sports Bar & Grill said the communication from Waverley during the last week before the liquidation had been “very poor” as he was “shorted” on his wine order.

“We will now have to reprint our menus because of the loss of products, which is disappointing.”

Evans added: “We have three meetings today with wine and spirits suppliers after which we will sit down and decide the best way forward.”

However, one PMA forum user expressed concern about the stocking of his local Booker. “The local Bookers is now out of stock on many core pub items with deliveries not expected until the end of the week.”