ExCellar in administration

ExCellar, the wine retail chain owned by ex-Oddbins boss Simon Baile, has gone into administration.

London Insolvency practitioners Griffins confirmed today that Stephen Hunt was appointed administrator yesterday morning.

ExCellar has seven shops in London and the southeast of England, and one in Paris. None were taking calls today.

A spokesperson for Griffins confirmed that all stores were closed as of yesterday.

Simon Baile started ExCellar in 1999. He bought 158 Oddbins shops from French retailer Castel Frères – owner of the Nicolas chain – in 2008, running the chain until it finally went into administration in 2011.

Baile then bought back five Oddbins stores from administrators Deloitte, increasing the number of ExCellar stores

Griffins has given no further information about ExCellar at this stage.

Notice of correction:

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that ‘Simon Baile started ExCellar with business partner Henry Young in 1999.’ The full name of company referred to is ExCellar Ltd.

Mr Young has contacted Decanter to say that he has been neither a shareholder nor executive of Excellar Ltd and held no operational role there at any time since 1999. Mr Young was in fact Mr Baile’s business partner in a separate company named ExCellar Investments Ltd, set up in 2008, which was the holding company for the purchase of Oddbins Ltd. We apologise for this error.

Written by Adam Lechmere