The launch of Drop in Dulwich last month marks the fifth site for the franchise-based company – and there is a lot more to come.
The group’s commercial director and head buyer, Wieteke Teppema, confirms that Ealing will be home to the sixth Drop site, opening early next year, and a further six are planned before the end of 2023.
These will all be within London, but the following year will see the company’s footprint extend beyond the capital.
Teppema says: “Our warehouse is in Staffordshire, which is bang in the middle of the UK and well placed to facilitate other franchises throughout the country.”
Teppema says Drop is attracting a multitude of talented people, such as Hayley Try Carreira (pictured above), who is the owner and operator at Dulwich.
Try Carrira says: “After years in the London restaurant industry, I wanted to dive into the fun of wine. Drop has given me the perfect balance between being a business owner, working with a great network of professional people, and the latest technology with their delivery app.”
Teppema says that although the company is open to working with potential franchisees from different backgrounds, so far all its operators have come from the hospitality sector.
“The idea is that it’s people who have the experience of running businesses and working with wine, but don’t necessarily have the opportunity to raise the investment,” she says. “So Drop facilitates that through a group of investors.
“We don’t necessarily benefit from that, we just facilitate that connection. The proviso is that each of the shops buys from the Drop selection, which is something that I can put together. Currently we have a selection of around 400 wines.
“Not each of the sites will have all of those wines available, because we account for the fact that someone in Clapham drinks differently to someone in central London, for example. Tastes vary according to the customer base. Every site has got something a little bit different – and that applies to the small plates we offer, too.”
Drop began in 2016 as a delivery app developed by Will Palmer and Ian Campbell, owners of The 10 Cases restaurant in Soho. Since then, the app has been facilitating wine deliveries to Londoners within an hour, and the bar and shop in Drury Lane, Covent Garden, has opened.
After Palmer and Campbell announced their intention to launch Drop as a franchise business, as reported in the June 2021 edition of The Wine Merchant, franchises duly followed, the first being Drop at No 11, in Amersham: the first and, so far, only site outside of London.
Branches in Clapham and Kensington opened earlier this year.
