Oddbins - Kew

General information

In 1963 entrepreneur Ahmed Pochee starts up a small business delivering bin-ends and oddments of wine (hence our name!) to the restaurants and clubs of London's West End.

In the Seventies Oddbins, snapped up by new owners Dennis Ing and Nick Baile, introduces Britain to the wines of Portugal and the South of France. The company expands into Scotland, the West Country and the North West with wooden floors and wacky blackboards.

In the Eighties, Oddbins, now owned by Seagram and sporting 100 stores, becomes the first company to bring Australian wine and Ralph Steadman onto the UK high street. Oddbins is awarded Wine Merchant of the Year at the International Wine Challenge for the first time in 1988, the first of 12 such awards.

In the Nineties, Oddbins holds its first consumer Wine Fair in London. It's such a success we decide to hold two each year, with one in London and one in Edinburgh.

Into the 21st Century, and we start the new millennium as we mean to continue by winning the Wine Merchant of the Year again in 2000 and 2001. We celebrate by launching Oddbins.com and continue our trend-setting agenda by rediscovering Greek wine.

In the Noughties, Oddbins comes under the ownership of Castel Frères, one of France’s biggest wine producing companies. Vive la différence! In 2008, Henry Young and Simon Baile (son of previous owner Nick Baile) buy Oddbins from Castel. Hard times follow and the company falls into administration.

In 2011, Oddbins huge value is recognised by European Food Brokers, one of Europe’s largest food and drink retailers and wholesalers…who snap up 37 high performing stores planning to grow the iconic business both on the high street and online once again.

In this, its 51st year, Oddbins is on winning form again, having won both Portuguese Specialist Merchant of the Year and High Street Chain of the Year at the International Wine Challenge, Best Specialist Chain at the Portuguese wine awards; and Chain of the Year at Off-Licence News’ Celebrate British Beer awards. The Palate, for which we won Innovation of the Year 2014 at the Drinks Retailing Awards, is bigger than ever and not only are we opening new shops, but we are also opening specialist Beer Shops for the first time. Watch this space.