Ellis of Richmond is a long established independent importer and wholesaler of fine wines.  Founded in 1822 and with the Ellis family still at the helm, this company has developed a diverse portfolio which exclusively represents over 35 producers.  Following a move to new premises, they took the decision to operate their own bonded warehouse.

Previous Systems

Ellis of Richmond converted to Vintner in 1991 from a predominantly manual system.

System Requirements

A system was initially required to cope with the day to day business of a busy wholesaler, encompassing stock control, purchasing and accounts. The earlier version of Vintner had a well proven track record and provided all requirements within the standard package. Later developments introduced the requirement for a Bonded warehouse module in 2002 and a website presence in 2008.

Recent Developments

Implementation of the Vintner Bond Module provided substantial cash flow advantages and the ability to compete with other major players, most significantly within the area of providing spirits.

“The Vintner Bond module requires very little time and effort to complete the extensive requirements of Revenue and Customs paperwork.” – William Ellis

In 2008, Ellis of Richmond launched its new website. Previously, their wine list had been available as various PDF downloads, the production of which was a time consuming process and these documents had to be continually updated. This problem was solved by integrating the new website with the Web Services module. This allowed live product details, tasting notes and producer details to be automatically extracted from the Vintner system and displayed on the website without any additional work. It also enabled the website to provide a powerful wine search facility to allow the user to search by features such as producer, vintage, colour, grape variety and bottle closure type.

To improve the level of their customer service, Ellis of Richmond wished to provide the additional facility for their trade customers to place orders online and this was achieved using the B2B Website module. This module enabled customers to log in to their own account on the website to view their account history, list of products specific to themselves and place orders with their own special prices being applied.