Administrators in ‘advanced talks’ to sell wine merchant

Picture: “Oddbins, Richmond, London TW9”by Kake . is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Wine merchant Oddbins could be bought back by its former owner four months after the retailer entered administration.

Walsall-based European Food Brokers acquired Oddbins out of administration in 2011 but was itself forced to put the company into administration in February, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

The collapse was blamed on a slowdown in consumer spending and rising rents and rates.

Administrators from Duff & Phelps have continued to trade the Oddbins, Wine Cellar and Whittards Wine Merchants stores, although they have closed 13 of the 101 stores.

Weekend reports have said European Food Brokers’ owner Raj Chatta is in “advanced talks” to take back control of most of the business. Some locations would be sold in the deal.

Oddbins’ problems are not unique, with Bargain Booze owner Conviviality entering administration last year while Majestic Wine is looking to sell off its physical stores to focus on online sales.