Sales data

uncle tom · Post by **uncle tom** » 21:57 Fri 20 Jul 2007

Just did a little trawl of the IVDP site, looking at the market data for 2006

Converting litres to bottles, and euros to pounds, I calculated that the average price realised for sales of vintage port to the UK was just £9.20/bottle.

OK, there's duty to pay (£1.78/bottle), and I assume that these are FOB prices so some haulage costs needed to included in the calculation - but that's only going to be about 50p/bottle.

So the average cost of a bottle of VP is going to be about £11.50 landed.

I can't find any stats on the division between SQ's and the blends, but my best guess is that the SQVP's and less known blends outsell the famous name blends by around 3:1.

It suggests that the total purchase cost of late released SQ's like Bomfim and Malvedos to the supermarkets is probably less than £10/bottle, and that wines like Graham and Taylor '03 are probably being offered retail at prices that are around double those paid to the producers.

The supermarkets seem to be trading their VP's at a higher margin (both in percentage and absolute terms) to the lesser beasts (bear in mind even the basic rubies pay the same duty) - while the big name blends look saddled with too many middle men.

Trying to short circuit the likes of Tesco or Fells might be an uphill struggle! - but the small independent quintas shouldn't be offended by the idea of supplying trade orders for their young VP 'ex quinta' for around 10 euros/bottle - or even less..

Scope for a little business perhaps..

Tom

Post by **Alex Bridgeman** » 16:50 Sat 21 Jul 2007

I'm not an expert in the field of EU duty and VAT law, but my layman's understanding is that if you were to buy port ex-Quinta and ship it to the UK for your own consumption (either your own personal consumption or for the personal consumption of the people who are members of the cooperative that buy the wines) then I thought that there was no additional duty or VAT to pay other than that already paid in Portugal.

But then I believe that Portuguese VAT on port is 21%.

Alex

uncle tom · Post by **uncle tom** » 18:30 Sat 21 Jul 2007

I think you would struggle to get the best trade prices for purchases of less than ten cases, and uneconomic to bring back quantities that customs would agree were 'for personal consumption only'.

So a proper trading basis - trading name & VAT registration - would seem necessary.

That would mean paying duty and UK VAT (unless you put the wine into bond on arrival) - but not paying the Portuguese VAT.

Tom