Artisans Depot in Wimbledon has been under new ownership since December and, thanks to changes including the introduction of events and an on-licence, business is looking good.
Phil Gould and Rob Collard had not met until they both expressed an interest in buying the same business.
“I’m more finance-based and Rob is a lawyer,” says Gould, “so our skill sets are quite complementary. We both have full-time jobs, and this was an investment that we wanted to make. We were both customers of the shop under its previous ownership and first and foremost we really didn’t want it to close down. It is a lovely local store and it would have been a great shame to lose it.
“We bought the business at the start of December and there wasn’t too much that needed to be done apart from some minor alterations, and we managed to get up and running about two and a half weeks before Christmas.”
The shop originally opened in 2021 as a bottle shop and deli but, since re-launching, Gould and Collard have installed a full-time manager and two part-time staff. The new licence has given them another revenue stream with the addition of the bar, and they’ve also introduced cheeseboards to encourage customers to stay a little longer and maybe order a bottle rather than just a glass.
“Coming from the corporate world, it has been quite a learning exercise for us both,” says Gould. “But we both have a huge interest and a love of wine. We’ve already grown the stock considerably [working with Hallgarten, Enotria&Coe and Vin Cognito], and we’ve also bought in more local craft beer.”
A bit of networking with the local PTA has also paid off. “The school is at the other end of the road from the shop and just before we opened we sponsored the bar at the school fair and handed out supplies,” says Gould.
“We were able to talk to all the locals, who hopefully would become our customers, and just got some feedback. We asked why they weren’t going to the shop, or what they didn’t like, and what we could improve, and that was invaluable.
“We discovered there was a perception that the cost of the wine was too high. We’ve immediately addressed that and made sure we’ve got bottles starting at £12, as opposed to £20. We’ve got wine on the shelves up to £100, so we’re really trying to cater to the needs of the entire community.
“Having multiple revenue streams was key for me, so we applied for the bar licence pretty much straight away, then we started having wine tastings, and when we introduced the cheeseboards we sold nine straight away. We did a Greek tasting and we had lots of very happy punters with people buying wine when they left, so that was really successful.
