Tesco to close wine community website

Tesco plans to close its wine community website within a week in order to re-focus on wine sales via its shop and on Tesco.com.

A spokesperson for UK supermarket confirmed to the closure of the Tesco Wine Community website. It will cease to operate on 28 August, after being launched in December 2011.

‘We know the [Wine Community] site has proved really informative for some customers, but we will now focus on providing information on our award winning wine range in store and on our Tesco.com website,’ said the spokesperson.

Tesco is also set to lose its long standing category director for wine, Dan Jago, who is moving to become chief executive of the Berry Bros & Rudd merchant in the next few weeks.

Tesco’s head of wine development, Laura Jewell MW, has also left in the past 12 months to become the UK chief of trade body Wine Australia.

The retailer said in June that the UK grocery market in general was ‘challenging’ – despite its small increase in like-for-like sales by volume in the first quarter of its financial year.

All of the so-called big four UK supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – have faced greater competition from discounters Aldi and Lidl, as well as from Waitrose at the higher end of the market.

Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.

He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.

Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.

Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.