Denmark’s independent retailers

The big multiples in Denmark have an estimated 83% of sales, leaving 17% to the HoReCa sector and the independent retailers, who are legion in numbers – indeed, almost 1,700 companies are registered by the Danish authorities. Many are only part-time garagistes, although some eventually become big, but even the smallest contribute to making Denmark one of the world’s most vibrant, dynamic and varied wine outlets.

You find diversity not only in the wine lists, but also in the structure of the companies, which are creative, innovative and adaptive. They can be retailers with one or many shops, online businesses, wholesalers for HoReCa, suppliers to the big multiples, restaurant owners, or cafés and bars. They can also be a gateway to Sweden’s monopoly, Systembolaget. Overall, Denmark’s specialist dealers are doing well and expanding on a yearly basis. Supermarkets are now promoting popular brands of Barolo and St-Émilion wines, in an effort to compete with the retailers. The bottom line? In Denmark, there’s an importer for every type of wine.

H.J. Hansen Vin

hjhansen-vin.dk

Erling Søgaard Jørgensen is CEO of the family-owned H.J. Hansen Vin. He began his career in the specialist trade in 1983, building up an oyster and wine trade for Løgismose, who pioneered a wine club offering wines direct from small producers in France. In the 1980s, Denmark was very Francophilic, with a French market share of more than 70%. Today that has changed but, being a classical specialist store, H.J.Hansen has about 35% French wine; by contrast, French wines represented only 12.7% of all wines imported in 2014.

H.J. Hansen has exclusivities with about 100 producers, with whom they build long-term relationships. There are 82 employees to handle the 2,500 different wines, which are sold to HoReCa and business-to-business clients, or online, or through the national Vinspecialisten chain of 53 shops. “We see in our shops more and more young people, of both genders, curious and hungry for knowledge,” says Søgaard. “Formerly they only came to buy gifts for special occasions. Now they come for their own daily consumption.” Service is important, he continues, to open the door for your customer. When they leave, Søgaard likes it when he hears someone say: “It’s not really Christmas unless we have been to H.J. Hansen.”

Although Denmark’s overall number of wine imports have fallen, the independent retailers report rising sales; in the past year, for example, H.J. Hansen has increased sales by 7% to 8%. “People are now again willing to spend money on luxury products like Champagne and brandy,” says Søgaard, explaining that it’s the supermarkets who sell wines at the lowest prices that are having problems. “Since January 2012, the wine tax in Denmark has risen 84%, making the competition hard especially for the supermarkets, who have had to compete with a growing border trade.” A wine that was once sold for 30.00 DKK ($4.50) now costs up to $6.00, making it cheaper to cross the border into Germany and buy wines there. Søgaard is also considering crossing the border – he sees possibilities for H. J. Hansen in the northern part of Germany.

Østjysk Vinforsyning

vinforsyning.dk

Old-timer Peter Schaltz has been in the wine trade since 1980 and has done plenty of strategic thinking, as you’d expect from someone who has won more than 40 national and international championships in bridge, and is a World Champion. ”There’s demand for a specialist trade making an effort to supply the customer with quality, guidance and knowledge,” he says. ”There’s a limit to how far we can get selling on the web. People want the physical contact – the dialogue.” Schaltz says people like to hear the story behind the wine, and says this is many times more important than the price. “This is also the case for the many Swedish and Norwegian customers we have. The quality of the wine is crucial – without that we die.” The next step is then service and convenience. “For instance, when a company client orders wine for a reception, you not only deliver the wine, but you make sure it’s served at the right temperature.”

Schaltz has been in the eye of the hurricane of takeovers in the Danish wine business over the last three decades. In 1981 he was appointed sales director and CEO at Peter Heering, taken over by Danisco in 1989. When he disagreed with Danisco about the strategy, he left in 1990 to become CEO at Vingården, then owned by Carlsberg. In 1999, Vingården was sold to the Finnish Marli Group, and then to V&S in 2002, and Schaltz became vice president of V&S Nordic. After a Pernod Ricard takeover, he was tasked with selling all the daughter companies. One of them, Østjysk Vinforsyning, he bought himself. The first thing he did was to segment the market, which was an idea he’d had in his Danisco days in the 1980s. The company now has a number of divisions dedicated to different market segments, although they share functions such as buying, logistics, IT and HR. “It’s very simple – just do it,” says Schaltz.

Today, Østjysk Vinforsyning is a thriving business with 45 employees and a turnover of more than $22m. The company has a portfolio of 2,000 wines, supplying 30 Vinoble wine stores nationwide, along with HoReCa, business-to-business customers and the duty-free trade. But the company will not work with supermarkets. “That’s why we stopped with Rothschild and Antinori, who have some of their brands in the supermarkets,” explains Schaltz.

Since 2012, Østjysk Vinforsyning has also been in the Swedish market, so far with a listing of 11 wines in Systembolaget’s assortment. More will come, they predict, and the company has opened an office in Stockholm with new co-owner Niels Nørgaard as CEO.

Haller Vine

hallervine.dk

Poul Haller began importing wine in 1993. He’d taken over his father’s grocery shop in 1983, but it was a difficult time, with tough competition from the supermarkets. So he turned to wine, which was a booming business in the 1980s. The decision has made him a wealthy man, but also a busy one. To earn that yearly turnover of $7.7m, he wakes up to a 70-hour week.

Apart from his co-owned Vin&Vin chain of 12 shops, his import company Haller Vine A/S is a supplier to the big multiples Coop and SuperGros, along with the big specialist chains. “We are known for our quality and exclusivities,” says Haller, detailing the company’s 450 different wines, of which 55% are European and 45% New World. “Five years ago, the New World dominated with 70%,” he says, predicting even more European success as France and Portugal move ahead. This, he explains, is partly due to the strengthened US dollar, as the 25% rise in its strength has made wines from the US and South America more expensive. “The magic sales point is 100.00 DKK $15.00),” he explains. This means that bottles that were once priced at 98.00 DKK became 110.00 DKK once the dollar strengthened, and sales immediately dropped by 85%. It’s those kinds of calculations that Haller needs his producers dealing in US dollars to understand. Haller opened his first Vin&Vin shop in 2009, with a cash and carry concept, where everything is sold in cases of six bottles. It was an immediate success. Now with 12 shops in Jutland and Funen, he can see that wines in the price range from 60.00 DKK to 100.00 DKK are surging ahead.

Brdr. D’s Vinhandel

dvin.dk

Brdr. means ‘the brothers’. In this case it specifically means Søren (born in 1974) and Jesper Danielsen (1967). Their mother had a restaurant in Silkeborg, East Jutland, called Piaf and that became the name of the family’s first wine shop. Piaf Vinhandel was established in 1992, when Jesper was working as a chef and Søren was working with wine in restaurants and for Philipson Wine. As they were both living and working in Copenhagen they decided to open a shop of their own and do business the Brother Danielsen way: “Carry out the wine for the customer, open the door, create a nice atmosphere welcoming everybody.” This they have achieved with acclaim, and now own three shops in Copenhagen.

Eighty-five percent of what they sell they import themselves, while the rest are brands like Taylors, Krug, Gaja and Pingus that are bought from other Danish importers. “We send out newsletters, post pop-up tastings on Facebook, invite our producers to come to Denmark and meet our customers, etc,” says Søren Danielsen. “It’s an ongoing challenge – you have to focus and keep up, using all media platforms.” He continues, “We are most keen on European wines, with elegance and crispness rather than alcohol and sweetness. Vin nature and organic wines.”

Love of Food ’N’ Wine

ofnw.dk

As a child, Kenn Husted was sent to Copenhagen’s Royal Orphanage, a school established in 1772. He left this – his “Ivy League school”, as he calls it – in the eighth grade at the age of 15, to become a grocer’s apprentice specialising in wine. Since then Kenn Husted has opened endless numbers of doors. He started a flower shop, worked as a tourist guide, studied tourism, became a salesman for a hotel chain, founded antique shops, created a furniture and coffee shop, and finally returned to wine in 1999, opening Props Wine Shop. His first wine bar, Bibendum, followed in 2001. At that time there were only a few wine bars in Copenhagen, and those that existed he found too formal. Bibendum was created more like a cozy café, where non-beer-drinking people could come and sip a glass of wine.

Now he owns three wine shops, and eight wine bars and restaurants. He employs 150 people and defines his success as a question of creating a good atmosphere. And, he adds, staff are key. “My staff wear no uniform. They are personalities and can be themselves at work.” Other key parts of Husted’s unpretentious set-up include the constant flow of music, the interior he created from things he bought at rummage sales in France and Belgium, and the striking labels on the wines from his handpicked portfolio. Something else he keeps simple are the numbers. “I have promised myself not to have more that 150 wines,” says Husted. “That keeps me sharp. Seventy percent Old World, that’s what I prefer.”

After championing Austrian wine, he is now looking towards Hungary. “Having a business with synergies makes it safer to take risks,” he explains. “The unknown Hungarian wine is recommended in your restaurant, it’s well received and later it’s purchased in your wine shop.”

As he’s not the CEO type, he prefers to call himself the Wine Pusher, because that’s what he is. Following inspiration from an American brewer, however, his card now states ‘Beerweasel’.