At Johnston Logistics UK we are well known for our expertise in the handling, storage and distribution of HM Revenue & Customs bonded wines, beers and spirits. With our expertise we allow customers to focus on their core business.
In this blog we take a look at one of our excise bond customers – Halfwine Limited.
Halfwine Limited is a company that specialises in selling individually selected 375ml bottles (half bottles) of quality wines. Chief Executive Kevin Dilton-Hill set up this innovative company in 2011 following research that showed many people waste good wine as they don’t drink the bottle before it goes off and therefore use it in cooking or throw it out. Each wine is an example of excellence and only offered on the site if it has been curated personally by a member of the Halfwine team, all of whom have more than 20 years of experience in buying half bottles.
Halfwine currently offers the most encyclopaedic range of half bottles in the UK, made up of around 70 varietals, vintages, countries and vineyards almost completely sourced from smaller, family owned producers. These exceptional wines can be bought individually, sampled in the preselected tasting packs or as part of the subscription based wine club which sends out either 4 or 6 half bottles every month.
Businesses that import and export goods have to consider a variety of logistics issues: Where is best to securely store the goods? What is the most efficient way to pick, pack and dispatch to the end customer? The stability and growth of a business can rest on these critical parts of a company’s business model.
Halfwine was looking to outsource as many processes as possible to minimise their start-up costs and to be able to benefit from a fully scalable logistics solution.
Halfwine’s dedicated team at Johnston Logistics UK (JLUK) handle, store and distribute HM Revenue & Customs bonded wine, beers and spirits daily from our strategic base at Snetterton. Our warehousing and IT systems are HMRC approved, meeting the strictest conditions required for ‘under bond’ storage and with the added value of our premises licence we are able to send orders direct to consumers on behalf of our customers, even at individual bottle level.
JLUK’s ability to provide the service of goods stored under bond allows our customers to defer the payment of VAT and duty taxes until the point of despatch ensuring that cash flow isn’t effected by large amounts of money being tied up in the upfront payment of these taxes. Our IT systems are fully integrated with HMRC and are fully auditable and with our BRC accreditation we can guarantee traceability, accountability and security.
As experts in bonded storage, pick and pack services, order fulfilment and distribution we are able to provide a complete, flexible logistics and warehousing solution for Halfwine. From our experience we know that no two businesses are the same and as such we create bespoke solutions focused for each customer. Halfwine have the assurance that we can scale our business up with them, exploiting our extensive site and facilities, allowing them the space to grow and drive their business forward.
“Johnston Logistics UK has provided us with a reliable, ‘easy to do business with’ complete logistics solution. Even if we had the volumes to take the work in-house we would not do so because of the excellent service that we get.”
Kevin Dilton-Hill, CEO of Halfwine
