>>spirits and fortified wine buyer, Sainsbury
Draycott has worked at Sainsbury for 15 years. She joined the supermarket as a beers, wines and spirits manager in the Bury St Edmunds store.
After four years, Draycott started her climb up the ladder and ended her 13-year shop floor career as a store manager in Cambridge. She then moved to head office to become a speciality food buyer, but when the opportunity to become spirits buyer presented itself in 2003, she jumped at the chance. “I have always been interested in the category,” says Draycott. “I have really been pushing availability - my focus ever since I started the job, probably because of my trading background. We now have very good availability.”
suzie cornwell
Morrisons’ senior wine buyer caught the wine bug when she first visited a vineyard while studying French and Spanish at university. She joined Majestic Wines, which she said was a great training ground, and then moved on to Moreno Wines. She loves to create her own ranges and see them in customers’ baskets.
Giles Fisher
Waitrose’s spirits buyer joined Oddbins from university and moved into buying with duty-free company The Nuance Group, later spending three years buying liquor, tobacco and confectionery in travel retail. He sees the main challenge is maintaining an own-label offer that matches the brands on quality.
maria gallup
The category buyer for wine at The Co-operative Group joined the society in September 2003 from The Wine Society, where she was a wine presenter. Her career in the wine trade began in 1995 as a recruit on Majestic’s graduate training scheme, followed by time working for a wine retailer in Chile.
ben wheeley
Sainsbury’s lager and flavoured alcoholic beverages buyer started in Sainsbury in 1994 on the graduate trainee scheme. He worked in store management for three years before moving to buying in 1997, working in procurement, fresh produce and fresh meat. He became lager and fabs buyer in March 2004.
JOHN WOOTTON
Now a project manager at Tesco, Wootton was earlier in charge of beers, wines and spirits. As senior buying manager on spirits, he had overall responsibility for spirits, fortified wines and flavoured alcoholic drinks. Wootton previously held positions in management consultancy, investment banking and at Asda.