Licence differences - Auction to Retail

lantana · Post by **lantana** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:00 pm

Can anyone shed any light on how Langtons have been able to offer Bordeaux 2004 en primeur with their existing liquor licence? I would have thought that the licence would've only pertained to auction sales & not direct retailing or did Mr Langton have to obtain a different licence to start selling retail. Does anyone know if a social impact study was required if he needed to change the licence & Gavin might know, if a retailer is only selling online, how is a social impact study carried out?

There's a few questions there, but I'm mainly interested in the licensing issue because this would seem to be another case of a bigger company (sure not as big as the grocers, but still...) encroaching on a niche market that was once the exclusive domain of a handful of good independant operators.

Thanks,
lantana

707 · Post by **707** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:12 am

Social impact study? I can tell you Gavin has been known to have a social impact on my wallet on a number of occasions. To borrow a line from Fawlty Towers "there's enough material there for a whole conference"!

DJ · Post by DJ » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:41 am

I would have thought the wine exchange would have needed a retail licence so they probably got one then.

If I remember rightly Hardy's in NSW had a retail licence as well as a wholesale licence when I worked for them 10 years ago. The retail licence gave them flexibility to do things like sell to staff - this could easily be my faulty memory.

JohnP · Post by **JohnP** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:57 am

As far as I know the license is Victorian, and they have much more relaxed approach to such things. Some Queensland companies have been know to try and use Victoria as a sales outlet to get around our ridiculous liquor sales laws.

John

707 · Post by **707** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:39 am

On a serious note now I'm sober, I understand the licencing laws in Victoria are fairly flexible and given Langton's resource and well placed connections I'd think their licence is all encompassing for trading except shopfront. In reality they are an internet retailer just like so many others.

Is your question due to something burning you or just musing?

lantana · Post by **lantana** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:06 pm

Is your question due to something burning you or just musing?

Bit of both really, I'm getting a bit sick of the big boys (the grocers really, not Langtons) encroaching on independants & driving them out of business. Sure many independants have prospered from inflated prices when they have managed to offload their businesses to Coles/Woollies, but it's the punter who is going to suffer in the end. I don't know of a decent independant retailer on the upper North Shore in Sydney anymore. Fifteen Celsius in Turramurra was looking as though they might be the goods, but something's happened to them, there's hardly anything in there anymore, bare shelves everywhere!! Then you have the great Porter's Liquor sell off to Woollies, whereby all the stores that were branded 'First Mistake' stores, having become known as 'Deceased Estate' stores, apparently are going to become BWS's & I'll finally be able to buy Woodstock Bourbon 500ml cans cheaply :!:

I guess the grocer's have won the war because I've been frequenting DM's for my weekly tipples, as I don't buy enough due to restricted funds with 2 young kids & school fees now occupying much of the wine budget

So my motivation for asking the original licensing question seems as if it was driven by other things going on in my mind, sorry Langtons & pppppffffffffft to the grocers!

lantana

707 · Post by **707** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:11 pm

Lantana, I'm on your tram, I hate what's happening in the marketplace, it has danger signs for consumers written all over it.

I'm in some ways I'm lucky, unlike a heap of others including yourself because being in Adelaide I deal face to face with a heap of my favourite wineries, buy from Auswine of course and have a friend who is arguably Adelaides best independent.

Sympathies are with you, maybe trade up and move to Adelaide?

lantana · Post by **lantana** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:07 pm

Sympathies are with you, maybe trade up and move to Adelaide?

Hmmmmmmmm, what year is it there again, 1983? I'm not sure I'd survive another run in the eighties, they were pretty hectic for me :shock:

Nah, I think I'll keep paying off the mortgage in the leafy burbs & winging about the parlous state of my cellar :cry:

Later,
lantana

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:33 pm

Lantana,

Fifteen Celsius in Turramurra was running down stock because it has had a change of ownership very recently.

lantana · Post by **lantana** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:23 pm

TORB wrote:Lantana,

Fifteen Celsius in Turramurra was running down stock because it has had a change of ownership very recently.

The Fifteen Celsius people didn't have it for very long, it was a Porter's until late last year!

TORB · Post by **TORB** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:19 pm

I got two different emails from people over the last couple fo weeks saying they used to be partners/or were with 15 C and that they were now on thier own. One of them is doing specialist stuff (sounds like from home) and the other was from a group of guys including Joseph S and two others who were long time Porters people. They are opening a new shop on the upper north shore; my nephew who used to work part time at one of them when he was at uni, has a short term job with them again.