Just had this press release through, thought it was worth posting in full.

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Naked sells to Majestic.

Do the Corporates always win? Not in wine. Not at all in wine! Virtually all the best wines in the world are made by family businesses, many of them quite small.

I am celebrating 50 years working with small family wine producers (454 at the latest count) and Laithwaite’s itself is still entirely family owned with all family members (over 18!) working in the business.

We winemaker families find it tougher than ever in a BIG Corporate retail world. But our customers love the wines that we find for them and that’s why we keep going. 

Laithwaite’s startup only happened because of funding from both wine grower friends, some kind customers who bought debentures… And the lifesavings of my granny, a corner shop owner in Bolton. It was the only way.

We were told early on never to go near ‘The City’ or we’d be eaten alive. We never have.

Next weekend we and a crowd of our wine makers will meet up with a bigger crowd of customers at the 35th Sunday Times Vintage Festival. True, this is on the edge of The City, in the old Billingsgate Hall but that is as close as we plan on getting to that place. 

Tony Laithwaite

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Fighting talk…