Fine Wine Dealer and Importer
Ref.EJ008 Location Buckinghamshire Asking Price £Offer Invited Confidential offered for sale
Finance available to buy this business subject to status. All regulated business is passed to independent financial advisors who are regulated by the FSA | |
Asking Price Includes
Established client base
Outstanding relationships with suppliers
Excellent opportunities for future growth and further expansion
Many years of successful operations
In-depth technical knowledge
Reputation within the industry for reliability and trustworthiness
Completely portable business offering
Computer database
Full training and handover
Significant goodwill | Business profile: | The business provides fine wine managed investment opportunities to customers, predominantly high net worth individuals, ordinary people with little or no knowledge of Fine Wines and enthusiasts, assisting them to arrange suitable investment portfolios at significant return and tax benefits. This is achieved by providing customers with a full package that includes selection, financial advice, storage, delivery and divestment.
People have been investing in Fine Wines for many years. However until businesses like this were founded investors would either have to be experts or be prepared to make expensive mistakes. This business manages the process from the start giving customers the confidence to invest with excellent prospects of significant returns.
The business’s executive team have designed investment plans by taking the best features and benefits from other common investment plans and removing the usual drawbacks of those schemes by creating what is now generally considered to be one of the most tax efficient and fully flexible range of investment plans available in the open market today. Profits are Free from Capital Gains and Income Tax.
For an investor, a Fine Wine should have the following attributes; be from a limited production, be produced under strict regulations, come from a recognised system of classification and have a complexity of taste and longevity that improves its quality with age.
When investing in Fine Wines the quality, purchase price, quantity produced, Château and vintage are of primary importance, and once bottled the atmospheric pressure, temperature and overall condition of its storage is as equally important.
Benefits
The benefits of fine wine ownership include:
Personally tailored Portfolios
Personal ownership of tangible asset
Each Portfolio is fully managed
Regular valuations and newsletters - including Auction updates
Complete flexibility over investments
No early redemption penalties
Partial/Full encashment without charge
Investment increase without charge
An opportunity to invest in something other than the stock market or building society
We advise our clients to store their wines in our Trustee Accounts held within UK Customs controlled Bonded Warehouse, for the following reasons:
Recorded Personal Ownership
Wine maintained in optimum conditions
Wines can not be removed from bond without owners written consent
Insured at full replacement value
Personal trust account
No VAT
No Duty
Proved provenance, vital to its value when sold
The business operates from a home office but nonetheless maintains a fully professional and well respected reputation as a virtual offering, by virtue of the quality of the business’s offer and presentation, through branded media such as invoices. This arrangement is largely responsible for the business's low overheads and its profit margin. This makes this business the perfect opportunity for an owner manager seeking a simple and robust business.
There is also a substantial opportunity to increase turnover by:
a) introducing additional products and services to the existing customer base, and
b) low-cost sourcing of new customers by pro-active in-house referrals telemarketing.
Supply & Demand
When wine is ready to drink stocks start to diminish, wines good enough to be used as an investment will usually have a life span of 40-49 years, some may last even longer. An excellent wine will take approximately 5-7 years (average) before it has matured enough to be drinkable, however most connoisseurs will wait until the wine has reached its optimum drinkable level, usually when the wine is approximately 12?18 years old. The wine will then carry on maturing in the bottle getting better and better as the years pass, right up until the end of its life when it will quite suddenly, (in comparison to its life span) 'go off''; or as it is better known in the wine world 'Over the Hill'.
An increasing demand (due to increasing quality and rarity) together with a decreasing supply (due to consumption) creates the basis for a very successful and stable market.
With the benefit of this business’s experts they are able to predict when specific top class wines will mature and when they will reach the end of their prime drinking life. We are able to offer structured investments, with varying degrees of risk, to mature at specific times.
Growth Bordeaux, fine Burgundies, Vintage Champagne and Vintage Port over the years have been a good investment, seldom have auction prices decreased.
The 2005 London International Vintners Exchange 100 Fine Wines Index was up 18.7% year on year and the outlook for the year ahead is positive. Vintage Burgundy prices from known domains are also on an upward curve
Market Opportunity
Demand has been growing annually as the world's inhabitants are introduced to the exclusivity and complexity of drinking Fine Bordeaux wines. Whilst more investment minded people become aware of the opportunities brought about by simple supply and demand. Over the past 10 years or so, the American, Asian and Far Eastern buyers have come into the market with some force. They are not just buying wines to keep and sell on, they are buying them to drink, and are rapidly reducing the world stocks.
Investment in top class Bordeaux Wines have shown greater returns and less volatility than any other recognised form of investment and you can start from as little as £1,500.
Some of the better known Premier Crus used are; Château Lafite, Château Latour, Château Petrus, Château Margaux, Château Cheval Blanc, Château Mouton Rothschild, and Château Lafleur to name but a few, which have not only given hours of joyous drinking pleasure, but also substantial returns for those clever enough to own them.
The History of Fine Wines
The drinking and worshipping of Wines goes back longer than written history. It emerges with civilisation itself from the East.
It was in fact the Romans who brought the first vines to France at about 500 BC, and planted in bordeaux at approximately 50 AD. There has been much speculation about the quality of Roman wine, which is quite well documented. It apparently had extraordinary powers of keeping, which in itself suggests that even then it was good. The great vintages were discussed and even drunk for longer than seems possible; there are records of a wine made in 121 BC being drunk when it was 125 years old.
The most consequential move in history was when the Romans took their vines to Gaul, by the time they withdrew in the fifth century from what is now France, they had laid the foundations for almost all the greatest vineyards of the modern world. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans were not limited to earthenware and amphora's to store their wines in, they had barrels not dissimilar to modern barrels and bottles not dissimilar to modern bottles.
Shakespeare was also a great lover of wine, and left some of the most descriptive tasting notes of the 17th century.
Late in the 17th century the cork was discovered. Bit by bit it became clear that wine kept in a tightly corked bottle lasted much longer than wine kept in a barrel as it had been, which was likely to "go off" at any time after the barrel was broached. It was also discovered that wines kept in different sized bottles also aged in a different way, acquiring what is known as a bouquet.
The Wine trade was booming and bordeaux wines were being exported all over the world. In fact ships were measured by the number of tonnes of wine they could carry.
In 1855 Napoleon III effectively started the "Fine Wine Index" when he classified the wines in bordeaux from 1 to 5. He based his decisions on the quality and prices realised of each Châteaux wines over the previous 100 years or so. Apart from one change in 1979 when Château Mouton-Rothschild was promoted from a 2nd growth to a 1st growth wine, nothing has ever changed.
In fact the laws he put in place in 1855 are vigorously upheld today and controlled by the Institut D'Appellations d'Origine and upheld by EC directives. | Growth and Expansion
The current market for this business is growing and is forecast to continue to grow significantly in both the medium and long terms by the emergence of new fine vintages.
Business operations while currently at minimum activity are therefore not yet at maximum capacity, and there is considerable scope to increase both revenues and profits by gearing operations in line with current and forecast market demands. | <>Key Opportunities
This is an outstanding opportunity to build on the existing services and customer base of this business. With a strong demand for services, combined with a capacity to increase turnover further, a new owner contributing fresh initiatives will have every opportunity to build on an excellent platform.
The firm maintains an extensive base of satisfied customers who appreciate the company's superior levels of customer service. There are many excellent avenues for growth, especially in the light of current marketing methods and other initiatives not yet implemented.
Key Strengths
The business is an autonomous organisation where the business owner has, over many years, developed and nurtured a business identity responsible for the maintenance of the business’s solid reputation. This significantly eliminates the need for such maintenance by the personal attention or input from the vendor. This has resulted in customer relations founded on a history of trading satisfaction, which is not contingent upon the presence of the owner.
The company has earned an outstanding reputation for its honesty, service, reliability and customer satisfaction. This has resulted in very high levels of customer loyalty. | | | Financial profile: | | Please sign confidentiality form to recieve Financial Details. | Premises
The business is located in an easily accessible part of Buckinghamshire and is fully re-locatable to anywhere in the UK. | | Reason for sale
The business is for sale as the vendor wishes to retire. | | Turner Butler Disclosure Statement: This statement applies to information relating to any company or other undertaking or business advertised for sale by Turner Butler (a 'Business') The information supplied by Turner Butler on its website or in any other promotional material ('the Information') is not and is not intended to constitute an offer for sale of the Business or any assets of the Business or of the shares of any company which owns the Business. For the avoidance of doubt there is no intention to create a legal relationship which will only come into existence when a written contract for sale and purchase of the shares in or the Business has been entered into The Information provided is not intended to address your particular requirements. Further the Information does not constitute any form of advice recommendation representation endorsement or arrangement by Turner Butler and is not intended to be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any specific decisions. Any agreements transactions or other arrangements made between you and any client of Turner Butler are at your sole risk and responsibility. The prospective sellers of the Business have provided the Information to Turner Butler. The Information has not been verified by Turner Butler. You must carry out your own due diligence and satisfy yourself as to the accuracy of all matters. In the case of the sale of shares in a Business the Information has been prepared on the basis that the shares will consist of or include more than 50% of the voting shares and that both the seller and the buyer is either a body corporate, a partnership, a single individual or a group of connected individuals so as to fall outside the scope of regulated activities as defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. If you are considering a transaction which falls within the scope of such regulated activities you cannot do so through Turner Butler. Appropriate professional, legal and accountancy advice should be obtained before making or refraining to make any decision. Turner Butler does not accept any responsibility or liability for loss or damage of any nature that may occur by reliance on the Information. Neither Turner Butler nor any of our employees or agents makes any representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the Information nor do we accept any liability for any losses, costs, liabilities or expenses which may arise directly or indirectly from your use of, or reliance on the Information. This document is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with English Law and any dispute arising in connection with it shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts Turner & Co (GB) Limited registered in England and Wales under company no. 2477988 of registered office Savoy House Savoy Circus London W3 7DA, trading as Turner Butler © Shaun Sweeney October 2006 |
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