Thresher Group

Thresher Group is the largest independent off-licence retail chain in the UK, with around 2,000 shops operating under several retail brands. It is based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

History

* In the early 1990s, the company had five retail brands: "Thresher Wine Shop", "Drinks Cabin", "Wine Rack" and Huttons", being owned by Whitbread.
* In November 1991, Threshers, then owned by Whitbread alone, bought the Peter Dominic Group from Grand Metropolitan for £50m. The "Bottoms Up" brand of shops, formerly owned by Peter Dominic, was retained. Peter Dominic was separated from GrandMet's IDV group in 1989 to become a retail division.
* In August 1998, Allied Domecq (then British-owned) combined their 1,490 "Victoria Wine" brand of shops ("Victoria Wine Cellar", "Haddows", "Martha's Vineyard", and "The Firkin") with the 1,470 "Thresher" brands of shop (of Whitbread). The merger is called "First Quench".
* In September 1999, Allied Domecq sold their 50% of the company to Punch Taverns.
* In October 2000, the Japanese private equity company Nomura buys First Quench for £225.
* In April 2002, the company is bought by the European private equity company, Terra Firma Capital Partners.
* In September 2004, the brand "The Local" is launched.
* On 23 December 2005, Thresher Group bought 200 outlets from collapsed rival Unwins. These newly acquired Unwins outlets were re-branded as either 'The Local' or 'Thresher Wine Shop'.
* In June 2007, Thresher Group was sold to the equity company Vision Capital for around £250 million.

Thresher retail brands

;Wine-led:Threshers:Wine Rack;Drink retailing:Victoria Wine:Bottoms Up (offering up to 650 brands of wine in one shop):Drinks Cabin;Value driven:The Local;In Scotland:Haddows

In the news

Viral marketing incident, November 2006

In November 2006 Thresher Group advertised a 40% discount voucher online, which was quickly seized upon by consumers and began spreading round as viral marketing by email. The Thomson website temporarily collapsed under the pressure.

The offer is suspected Fact|date=April 2007 to have been a clever marketing ploy to generate increased sales. Two indicators are:

* The offer gave 40% discount on wines and champagne, two products permanently sold under their "buy 2 get 3rd bottle free" promotion.

* Emails were stated to have been targeted for businesses, however regular customers could easily visit the site and download the coupon without the need for business-related information.

Coupons only give 7% more discount over the standard promotion (33%) which would initially be considered a loss making scheme however the extra interest generated by the ease in obtaining coupons as well as numerous customers purchasing large quantities of expensive items (e.g. champagne) appears to have worked to vastly increased store takings for items which would otherwise not be sold so rapidly.

References

*cite news
first=
last=
author=just-drinks.com editorial team
url=http://www.just-drinks.com/news_detail.asp?art=29596
title=UK: Thresher buys 200 Unwins stores
publisher=just-drinks
pages=
page=
date=2005-12-23
accessdate=2005-12-24
*cite news
first=
last=
author=BBC News
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6198828.stm
title=Web discount frenzy at Threshers
publisher=
pages=
page=
date=2006-12-01
accessdate=2006-12-01

ee also

* Majestic Wine
* Oddbins (formerly owned by the French [http://www.groupe-castel.com/uk/accueil.shtml Castel] )

External links

* [http://www.threshergroup.com Thresher Group website]