"This is a tremendous coup for ItsWine.com," said Edward Mills, founder and Managing Director of ItsWine.com. "Esme is one of the most respected pioneers of the UK wine trade. He brings a huge amount of experience and contacts from his time of setting up and running Majestic Wine Warehouses. Esme is the key piece in the jigsaw that we needed to set ItsWine.com off on the path to flotation on the stock market. We now have a really strong management team with a unique combination of a huge amount of experience and contacts in the traditional 'bricks and mortar' wine trade to complement our team of web experts who provide the latest 'clicks' web technology. Our business operation is so strong that it has enabled us to accelerate our plans such that we now aim to float later in the year."
ItsWine.com is being advised on its business and IPO strategy by Interregnum plc, the AiM listed IT Venture Marketing and Investment house based in London and San Francisco, and details of the planned flotation will be posted on the website when available.
"I am delighted to be part of ItsWine.com because it is different from most dot.com companies that thrive on hype and not much else," said Esme Johnstone. "The company has been trading on the web since August 1998 which, I believe, makes it the first, web-only wine shop in the UK. We have a solid web business combining the latest web technology with the experience brought in from the UK retail wine trade. The nature of the way people will buy wine is changing the future has to be largely e-based.
ItsWine.com is all about using the web to provide excellent service and value with, for example, our delivery to anywhere on the mainland UK that takes typically two days (with a guarantee of delivery charge refund if the customer does not receive their order on the specified day for delivery), which is helping us build a loyal and rapidly growing customer base.
"ItsWine.com is a real business, selling real quality products with real tangible profit margins unlike so many other dot.coms that judge their success solely on how many people they can get to visit their site even at the expense of effectively selling one pound coins for fifty pence to do so! I am really excited to be involved with ItsWine.com. I think Edward has put together a winning combination of all the right people with the skills to make a success of selling quality wines over the web by making it an enjoyable, hassle-free experience for customers. It is a business model that is energetic, dynamic and sound, and will enable ItsWine.com to rapidly expand operations into overseas markets."
ItsWine.com's prices for wines start at £2.99 per bottle and customers can make their own selections of wines to fill a mixed six or twelve bottle case. Each case costs £4.99 for delivery to any address in mainland UK. All major credit cards are accepted and the company operates a secure site for payment over the web or card details can be provided over the phone if customers prefer.
For further details, please check out the company's website at www.ItsWine.com or phone 01296 682600. ItsWine.com Limited is located at 11 Upper Wingbury Courtyard, Wingrave, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP22 4LW.
