Reserve Wines is one of the independent trade’s biggest success stories. Having overhauled the original store in Didsbury, owner Kate Goodman has established a hybrid blueprint she plans to roll out to a sixth – and maybe a seventh – branch By Graham Holter

Has the economic downturn had a significant impact on Manchester?   

I’m not saying it’s easy, but despite the growing escalation of costs, it doesn’t seem to be stopping people doing exciting things. It’s pretty vibrant and there’s a lot going on with new openings. Every time you go into the city, it looks different.

The cost increases are hitting us as well, for sure, but they’re just completely out my control. So I think, “what can I control to make sure that we’re scaling as a business?” We can keep doing interesting stuff, we can look at expansion, and we can keep investing in the team.

I think it’s realistic to acknowledge that it’s probably been as hard as it’s ever been to keep going. It’s more challenging to make money, because the costs are more demanding. But I can’t help feeling that, whilst it is challenging, there is opportunity.

You have five locations, starting with the Didsbury store, established in 2003. Tell us about what’s been happening at that site.

We spent quite a lot of the earlier part of this year changing Didsbury. We renovated it to include a drinking space two years ago and we’ve been like, “OK, how can we encourage people to stay a bit longer? How can we encourage them to spend a bit more?”

I don’t want to employ chefs, but with the help of one, we’ve developed a really simple menu that the team can prep themselves. It doesn’t require any particular culinary skills but we’ve collaborated with local producers, and we’ve got a very small menu of nice plates and that really seems to be working.

I think, when you’ve been somewhere for a long time as one thing, trying to get people to think of you in a different way is quite a challenge. So we’ve changed the look a little bit and had to work hard to market it and really train the staff to get behind it.

What role does retail play at Didsbury now? Has it been marginalised a little bit?

It hasn’t, and I was worried about that happening, because I am a retailer – that’s what I love. 

I think the key part of that is the team we’ve got in there. We’ve got a couple of guys who are really knowledgeable and really passionate, and that’s really helped drive that side. While we have had a bit of focus on how we uplift the margin a bit with people drinking in, and how we really elevate that proposition, we are still finding that the retail side is buoyant, which is also great, because I didn’t want to just become a bar. 

One of the guys is really into whisky, and he’s curated a range that’s getting a bit of a following. People are coming in to have a taster, or a small glass at the bar and then buying a bottle to take away, so it is working hand in hand. It’s what I always hoped it would be, although it has been a bit of a journey to get there because being a retailer was just so ingrained.

Will this be a blueprint for other branches?

Yes, I think now we’ve developed this in Didsbury, and we can see it paying dividends, I feel excited because I think, right, OK, that can work somewhere else. We can just be quite creative and a bit more flexible in terms of what we’re offering.

We’re nearly over the line with a new site. It’s an area in south Manchester which is having a lot of investment. There’s a great market there and it has beautiful buildings but it’s been struggling over recent years. 

It is maybe a little bit of a risk because that’s not quite where we would want it to be as yet, but hopefully it’s on an upwards trajectory.

It will be a standalone shop like Didsbury, rather than operating within a bigger format. It’s a bigger space so we can do different stuff there and a few more collaborations. We’d like different food operators to come in and build some exciting events around different food concepts because those events and experiences work so well. People really enjoy them and it’s a great way of driving new people into the store.

We should have opened in south Manchester 18 months ago but it’s been delayed because it’s part of a redevelopment site, so it’s not going to be until early next year now.

Meanwhile, we want to spend a bit of time on the website. There’s a lot going on, so we’ll see what happens regarding another site … but I always have an eye out.

Have you made any mistakes along the way at Didsbury?

We’ve got some stuff wrong, and we’ve had to change a bit of stuff. For example, I put these really gorgeous doors in because I wanted to create a private space. It just didn’t work and we had to take them out again. I was heartbroken about it as they were loads of money. 

It is just constant tweaking, isn’t it? Looking at stuff and saying, “is that right? Can we do it better? Can it be a better experience?” And the team really helped drive that. It is a lot about the people in the sites, and that goes back to recruitment and the right training. Staffing has such a big impact at lots of levels: on your customers, on you, on your brand name. It’s so important to get the right people – because the damage, if you don’t, can be done so quickly.

Reserve at Bents Garden Centre in Warrington is effectively a concession. Are any more of those likely?

It’s been quite challenging being there because it’s purely retail and there’s not the flexibility to do any drinking-in or our own events. We’re quite limited there so we would probably move away from that as a direction.

Are you still importing direct?

We are doing more, and that is a challenge because wholesale is tricky and there are a lot of good operators up here. I would like to do more and more of that but it is just trying to balance cash flow with the volume of stuff you’re bringing in and how quickly you can get through it. I feel a sensible way is to partner with some great UK suppliers as well.

What’s your outlook for the next few years?

We can’t compete at the lower end anymore. It’s not feasible, and we can’t make enough money doing that. We want to make people feel good when they come in. If they really enjoy it, they might spend a bit more. We all know that people are drinking less, so if they’re going to drink, let’s give them something brilliant and in a great environment, with some fantastic little nibbles and snacks, so they walk away feeling great. I hope there’s still a place for that.