Berry Bros to open four Heathrow stores

Joe Bates

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New locations for two existing stores and two brand new outlets for the UK wine and spirits merchant

British fine wine and spirits merchant Berry Bros & Rudd will open four new Wine Collection outlets at Heathrow airport this summer, offering customers the chance to pre-order products online or by phone before travelling.

The first two Wine Collection stores will open this month in terminals three and four, replacing Berry Bros' two existing Heathrow outlets, while two new shops will open in T1 and T2 later in the summer.

The four 250 sq ft (23.25sq m) stores will offer a Wine Collection service, which enables consumers travelling inside the European Union to pre-order from over 4,000 wines, spirits and champagnes at tax-free prices and collect them on their return. The stores will also display a range of about 100 fine wines for immediate purchase.

Berry Bros & Rudd retail director Robin McMillan told RavenFox.com: "The launch of the new Wine Collection shops brings together Berry Bros. & Rudd's eleven years of fine wine retailing at Heathrow with our award-winning website [www.bbr.com] to offer our customers a unique shopping experience and a ground-breaking pre-order facility.

"We offered a collection facility at Heathrow in the past but this had long lead times, was limited in the range available, and was not available via a pre-order facility on bbr.com."

Each store showcases about 40 of its best-selling wines and champagnes in bronzed cast-aluminium bottle holders along an etched glass table. Featured lines range from Bollinger Special Cuvée at £24.45 ($47.19), to Petrus 1982 at £1,690 ($3,262) and Romanée 1996 at £2,255 ($4,352). The remaining collections of champagne, spirits and wines are displayed on shelves or chilled wall cabinets.

Fitch Client director Stephen Scott said: "The [company's] tradition is expressed through the personal service—the collection wall has individually tagged orders—and knowledge of the staff. It was a very conscious decision to reflect Berry Bros' contemporary approach to retailing in the design style rather than trying to recreate a pastiche of the [Berry Bros' iconic] St James Street shop."