According to today's Off Licence News (increasingly required reading for those in the UK wine trade) even those working at Oddbins head office are saying that Oddbins is heading for a "crisis". The two best-known senior buyers have recently announced their departure, along with the supply chain boss, the boss of the bonded warehouse, several finance and marketing people and even the PR manager, Oddbins' interface with the outside world.
The main problem apparently is that the new owners French firm Castel, which also owns the Nicolas chain, has been insisting on inserting too many dreary Castel brands into Oddbins' once eclectic range. Said an...