If you want proof that the boom years are over, look no further than London's club land. Upmarket joints such as Boujis have stopped demanding table minimums and stories of City boys spending tens of thousands of pounds in a night have long vanished. "But people are still going out," says Jimmy Metta, 28, co-founder of champagne distributor Vanquish Wine they're just becoming a bit more thrifty. Rather than buy Cristal at £135 a bottle, they'll downgrade to Dom Perignon, "which we sell at £65".
Metta is far from the only businessman to be putting a brave face on the downturn, but then he has become used to battling since he founded Vanquish in 2003. Sourcing fine wines from his uncle's vast cellar in Switzerland, including Petrus 61s and Chateau Lafite 82s, Metta was at first treated as a conman by London merchants, who couldn't believe he had access to such rare vintages. Nine times out of ten, "they hung up on me when I cold called. The wines were that good." But Metta plugged away. He stuck to blue-chip, first-growth wines, supplied by his uncle and his contacts across Europe. He would buy on the 'grey market' from continental suppliers who had bought too much stock, rather than the more costly nominated national wine supplers.
Then, in 2005, one supplier offered him Cristal champagne, which London's nightclubs were crying out for at the time. With turnover standing at more than £300,000 a year, Metta decided to go it alone with an old friend, David Elghanayan, 33. Using London City Bond as a warehouse, they invested £300,000, "pretty much all our money", in Cristal, says Elghanayan. "Nightclubs were getting two cases a month from each champagne house, but were going through ten cases a night." That gave Vanquish an eager group of customers. "We were going door to door asking: what do you want Cristal? No problem. How many bottles? 100? We'll have it to you tomorrow. We delivered it from the back of my Range Rover, sometimes at two in the morning."
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"Cristal gave us a strategic entrance into nightclubs," says Metta. "Then product by product we began building our business", sourcing other hard-to-get drinks for the clubs, including Laurent Perrier ros and magnums of Dom Perignon. "What differentiated us from our peers is that we were able to buy very well because of our contacts." By 2006 sales had hit £2.1m. But then a dispute with one licensed wine supplier in Britain threatened to derail the business. "They told the nightclubs that what we were doing was illegal. But these guys are used to most people cowering away, so we threatened legal action." Vanquish eventually won "and we actually got their reps to go back to each club and apologise".
The firm has grown steadily since. Turnover reached £6.4m in the year to September which happened to be their best month yet. "Every club was packed last month," says Metta. "People were drowning their sorrows."
