SALES FALL FLAT AT THE UK’S OLDEST WINE MERCHANT

THE Queen’s wine merchant, Berry Brothers & Rudd, has suffered a fall in sales during a ‘disappointing’ year.

The firm shouldered a £2.1m one-off charge to cover the cost of laying off staff and shutting an office as it sought to turn the business around.

The wine merchant, which survived the Great Depression and two world wars having dispensed fine wines and scotch in London’s St James’s since 1698, took drastic action to stem losses that had swelled to £6.1m in 2015.

Its latest accounts, just filed at Companies House, show the loss has shrunk to £640,000 in the year to March 2016 but sales still fell to £145m from £151m.

New chief executive Dan Jago said: ‘The group has made significant steps to improve business performance following a disappointing 2015. We have seen solid performance across our business portfolio in wines, spirits, storage, hospitality and education.’

The firm, which counted Lord Byron and William Pitt the Younger as former customers, also benefited from a £2.1m exception gain after settling a dispute with its former distributor in Hong Kong.