Sales plummet for LCBO’s Vintages

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), Ontario’s monopoly supplier of spirits and Canada’s largest retailer of spirits and wine ($4 billion in net sales), advised would-be suppliers in mid-November that its Vintages fine wine and spirits business unit would no longer be accepting submissions for new orders from December through the Summer/Fall 2009 period.

Vintages category managers Greg Dunlop and Kathy Cannon wrote, “We are currently experiencing unprecedented economic conditions in Ontario. This has resulted in a significant unplanned-for decline in Vintages sales which in turn has caused our inventory to increase dramatically.”

Dunlop and Cannon will advise suppliers after they have reviewed the sales and inventory position in January and revised buying plans accordingly.