Trustpilot

Virgin Wines - How We Work

Ensuring that we have a positive impact, from grape to glass.

As well as being delicious and enjoyable, it is of the utmost importance to us that every wine we sell is, from grape to glass, created and delivered to customers' homes in a way that we are proud of.

We recognise that our social, economic and environmental responsibilities to these stakeholders are integral to our business.

  • We take seriously all feedback that we receive from our stakeholders and, where possible, maintain open dialogue to ensure that we fulfill the requirements outlined within this policy.
  • We shall be open and honest in communicating our strategies, targets, performance and governance to our stakeholders in our continual commitment to sustainable development.
  • The responsibility for our performance on this policy rests with all employees throughout the company.

Our commitment is to ensure a high level of service whilst upholding the values of honesty, partnership and fairness in our relationships with all our stakeholders.

Our Winemakers And Partners

We work closely with a network of more than 40 independent winemakers across the globe, through both direct relationships and via third party agents.

Many of our winemakers are small, family-owned businesses. We are proud to partner with these businesses to support their growth and help them to make a positive impact on their local economies.

We are committed to ensuring all products we sell are created through the operation of an ethical supply chain. We take a zero-tolerance approach to slavery and trafficking, and prior to working with suppliers, undertake due diligence to identify and mitigate potential risks. We regularly review our supplier base and require our partners to comply with all relevant local legislation regarding working hours, wages and working conditions.

Our Modern Slavery Statement provides further detail and can be found further down this page.

Our Planet

We are passionate about minimising the impact of our operations on the planet.

We're big believers that small things can have a big impact. The glass used for our wine and beer products is infinitely recyclable and we take steps to reduce the environmental impact of our products during transportation by shipping many of our wines in tank and bottling in the UK.

We avoid using single use plastics within our product packaging, and we actively encourage recycling across all three of our business locations.

Recycling Ethos

We pride ourselves on our rigorous recycling practices taking place across both warehouses. We aim to recycle all packaging materials including all cardboard from supplier packaging, the plastic film used to secure imports, and office paperwork. We also reintroduce wooden pallets back into the network for reuse, and even repair those that are broken to reduce waste. We comply with the PRN (Packaging Waste Recovery Notes) scheme, where we pay a levy to help cover the cost of recycling the packaging that we import.

Our transit packaging is manufactured from 100% FSC certified paper, is 100% recyclable, 100% bio-degradable and has up to 88% recycled content. We also do our best to avoid single use plastics within our product packaging, and we are working on how we can eradicate further use of plastic within the business.

Our Environmental Practices
  • We are a member of The Soil Association, a charity that looks transform the way we eat, farm and care for our natural world.
  • Our Norwich office uses a renewable energy supplier, and we are looking at how we can move 100% of our locations to renewable energy suppliers in the coming years.
  • We encourage our employees to work in an environmentally responsible manner, including promoting recycling and cutting down on single-use plastics.
  • We use the environmental policies of potential suppliers in selecting who we will work with in the production and distribution of our products.
  • We promote efficient use of materials and resources including water, electricity, raw materials and other resources, particularly those that are non-renewable.
  • We avoid unnecessary use of hazardous materials and products, seek substitutions when feasible.
This Year's Environmental Objectives
  • 20% of our supply chain will have completed an environmental practices review so we can identify sustainable practices in our supply chain.
  • We will produce a report detailing our long-term plans and targets for reducing our emissions.
  • Move to 100% LED lighting at all locations to reduce energy consumption.
  • Find out the recycled content of all packaging.
  • Find out the plastic content of all packaging.

Our People

We employ over 170 people across our head office in Norwich and our distribution centres in Preston and Bolton.

Diversity & Inclusion

Each and every employee is fundamental to the success of our business. We are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive workplace that respects and values each employee's individuality, background and experience.

Virgin Wines is an equal opportunities employer. We have created a culture where our staff can feel empowered and confident that they have an opportunity to grow and progress within our business regardless of age, gender, race and background.

You can read our Diversity and Inclusion Policy here

Our Causes

Our mission to look out for others extends beyond our own employees to include those within our industry and beyond.

We are delighted to partner with industry wellness initiative The Drinks Trust and mental health charity Growing Well to support those struggling with mental health issues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards.

Our Code of Ethics

We conduct all of our activities professionally and honourably with integrity and honesty, and expect our clients and suppliers to do the same. Our policies, procedures and training take proper account of ethical considerations, together with the protection and enhancement of the moral position of our clients and suppliers.

Our actions and advice will always, as a minimum, conform to relevant law. We believe it is our responsibility to avoid causing any adverse effect on the human rights of people in our organisation, the organisations we deal with, the local and wider environments, and the well-being of society at large.

Confidentiality

We are committed to maintaining the highest degree of integrity in all our dealings with potential, current and past clients, both in terms of normal commercial confidentiality, and the protection of all personal information. We extend the same standards to all our customers, suppliers and associates.

Contracts

Our contract will usually be in the form of a detailed proposal, including activities, costs, timescales and deliverables. We will not restrict the freedom of trade for any of our suppliers or partners. We always try to meet our contractual requirements, and settle accounts within agreed timeframes.

Payment

As a large percentage of our customers have a regular payment plan in place with us, we offer complete flexibility in the way this is managed. Customers can take payment holidays, change payment amounts/schemes, change payment dates and cancel as they wish. Payments taken in error will always be refunded as soon as we become aware of them and if we have caused a customer any financial hardship by our actions we will reimburse them. Customer funds are held in a ring-fenced trust account separate from business funds and available for refund at anytime.

Quality assurance

We maintain the quality of what we do through constant ongoing review with our winemakers and our customers. The feedback on our website is provided by our customers and the content is never influenced by financial incentives or corporate pressure. We genuinely care about the views of our customers and the integrity of our brand.

Professional conduct

We take great care to be completely honest, upfront and objective and do not attempt to hide behind small print or jargon.

Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement. 2021 Policy.

Last updated: 26.05.22

This statement is made pursuant to s.54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps that Virgin Wine Online Limited (Virgin Wines) has taken and is continuing to take to ensure that modern slavery or human trafficking is not taking place within our business or supply chain.

Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude, human trafficking and forced labour. Virgin Wines has a zero tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity and transparency in all business dealings and to put in place effective systems and controls to safeguard against any form of modern slavery taking place within the business or supply chain.

Our Business

We are an Online Wine Merchant operating exclusively within the UK. We employ over 180 staff all located at our three premises in the UK. Seasonal office and warehouse staff are employed directly by us or from a small number of established reputable recruitment agencies.

We source wine internationally either directly from the vineyard or via third party agents representing winemakers.

Other business services and consumables are procured almost exclusively from UK based companies.

Our Policies

The following internal policies exist to ensure we are conducting business in an ethical and transparent manner:

Recruitment Policy
  • We conduct robust checks on any new employee including their eligibility to work in the UK to safeguard against human trafficking or individuals being forced to work against their will. Suppliers of temporary labour will be vetted to ensure they are applying the same checks and controls before being approved.
Training Policy
  • To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business, we provide appropriate training to our staff. This is focused on but not limited to staff involved in recruitment, wine buying and the procurement team.
Staff Engagement
  • All staff have an obligation to familiarise themselves with our Slavery and Human Trafficking statement. This forms part of the induction process for all new staff and is included in the Employee handbook which forms part of their contract of employment.
Whistleblowing Policy
  • We operate a whistleblowing policy so that all employees know they can raise concerns about any practices within the business or the supply chain, without any fear of reprisals.
Supplier Due Diligence

As part of our due diligence processes to identify and mitigate risk:

  • Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains.
  • Where practical, mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
  • Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
  • Ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business by providing training to all relevant staff.

Virgin Wines does not and will not knowingly support or deal with any business involved in slavery and human trafficking. The Company completes due diligence on its suppliers, where practicable, to satisfy itself that it is trading with a reputable organisation.

We expect all of our partners in our supply chain to be opposed to slavery and human trafficking. As a minimum, we expect each entity in its supply chain to adopt 'one-up' due diligence on the next link in the chain for those organisations as it is not practical for us to have a direct relationship with all links in the supply chain.

Reporting

There have been no reports from staff, the public, suppliers or law enforcement agencies to indicate that modern slavery practices have been identified in the business or supply chain.

This statement was approved by the Board of Directors on 20nd May 2022.

Jay Wright Chief Executive Officer 20th May 2022.

Our commitment to drinking responsibly

We believe that our industry can and should work together to promote the responsible enjoyment of alcohol. We have a collective responsibility to positively change the nation's relationship with alcohol.

We are a member of both the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) and the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the educating body for the wine and spirits trade.

Every year, we sponsor the large majority of new staff through the WSET Advanced Certificate. The examination for this always covers course content on the principles of alcohol and social responsibility.

  • We do not sell alcohol to anyone that we believe to be intoxicated.
  • We do not sell alcohol to anyone with a medical or a dependency issue that we have either been informed of or suspect through their buying patterns.
  • We do not sell alcohol to customers whom we suspect of passing alcohol to under 18s.
  • We do not offer any incentives to our customers to drink irresponsibly.
  • We support the Portman Groups' Code of Practice regarding the responsible naming, packaging and promotion of alcoholic drinks.
  • Our employees have easy access to information about alcohol by volume (ABV) and alcohol units, for the benefit of customers as well as themselves.
  • The ABV of every alcoholic product we sell can be found clearly on our website.
  • Water is always available, free of charge, at our tastings. We encourage customers to use spittoons at these events and our employees will only ever pour tasting measures.
  • We provide education to school leavers through our 'Strive2Thrive' initiative around drinking responsibly.
Government Guidelines

The Government advises that people should not regularly drink more than their daily unit guidelines: New guidelines issued in January 2016 recommend restricting weekly units to 14. Expectant mothers should refrain from alcohol during pregnancy.

Men: 14 units

Women: 14 units

This is a weekly amount, not an average; 14 units once a week is not considered healthy or responsible.

The size and strength of your drink will determine the number of units it contains. It's not quite as simple as one drink, one unit - a glass of wine can range between just over one unit and more than three units depending on the size of the glass and type of wine.

Remember, when you're drinking at home, you tend to pour measures that are larger than you get in your local.

The law on alcohol covers such areas as underage drinking, drink driving and drinking in public places. The full facts can be found on the DrinkAware website.

Last updated: 01.09.21

The previous version of this document is available here.