Berry Bros & Rudd has revealed that it is never too late to embrace ecommerce, with the 300-year-old vintner making use of delivery services and a new eBay-style website to generate record-breaking online sales over 2011.

The London-based company, which provides wine for the Queen and the Prince of Wales, launched Berrys' Broking Exchange (BBX) in 2010 and has seen online sales skyrocket, rising to £25 million in 2011.

BBX allows consumers to sell and buy privately stored wine in Berrys' UK bonded warehouse, drawing comparisons with online auction giant eBay and vastly improving the company's levels of online engagement.

Berry Bros & Rudd has been quick to embrace the potential inherent in new technology, launching a sommelier app for smartphones last year which allows users to identify unknown bottles of wine using their mobiles.

Wines worth a total of £13.2 million were sold on BBX throughout 2011, leading to a 56 per cent year-on-year growth in sales. Furthermore, the company sold £20,000 worth of wine following advice to grape connoisseurs from sales director Simon Staples on Twitter, indicating the increasing importance of the online sphere to the historic vintners.

Simon Berry, chairman of Berry Bros & Rudd, said the company had been famous for the opulence and size of its window displays in Georgian England and explained that harnessing the power of the online marketplace can have a similar effect in galvanising trade.

"Today, our shop window is our website and we've become the internet's biggest specialist wine retailer. Technology may change, but we've always believed in using it to answer changing consumer demands," Mr Berry added.

He claimed the impressive sales figures posted imply the success of this approach and forecast continued growth throughout 2012, especially in emerging markets such as the Far East.

"I think we've shown that, even at the age of 314, you're never too old to get to grips with the web," concluded the chairman.

Author:  Paul Burn