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BC VQA wine in grocery stores has been a huge hit for the province.
One year ago the first BC VQA wine store opened on April 1, 2015 and since that date more than 50,000 bottles of B.C. wine has been sold. That means more than $3 million in retail sales has happened and several thousand shoppers are being exposed to the Wines of British Columbia.
In February, Kelowna Save-on-Foods welcomed BC VQA wine into its grocery stores and the rest became history. More than 1,000 different B.C. wines are now available at the Save-on-Foods in Kelowna.
"The goal of wine-in-grocery is to expand the success of our BC VQA Wine Stores and give consumers the convenience and access to a larger selection of premium-quality BC VQA - 100% BC Wines to pair with other great BC agrifoods," said Miles Prodan, President & CEO of the BC Wine Institute.
"In the first year sales have been higher than anticipated, and with another seven stores planned to open in the coming months, including stores in Vancouver Island and Northern BC, we are pleased to see BC VQA Wine become even more accessible to consumers province wide."
There are now seven BC VQA wine-in-grocery stores locations in the province, which encourages people to “Buy Local” when it comes to their wine and food.
More than 60 per cent of the 900 different wines available at each store comes from smaller or medium sized wineries and 50 per cent of those cannot be bought at any other liquor retail store.
Saxon Winery in Summerland has noted a 100 per cent increase in the BC VQA Wine Store sales since being included in wine-in-grocery.
"For small wineries like us who are not listed by the LDB, Save-On-Foods offers a strong distribution channel to reach more wine consumers than ever before," said Paul Graydon, owner of Saxon Winery.
"We see over 200 customers in one six hour tasting, that's more people than we would meet in any other environment. It's been working very well for us and long may it continue."
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