LicensingSource.net chats to EP Brands to find out more on its collaboration with wine expert Olly Smith and Stölzle Lausitz.
There aren’t many occasions during any given working day when it’s acceptable to break open the wine. However, when you’re invited to a wine tasting with award winning wine expert, regular presenter on Saturday Kitchen, columnist and author, Olly Smith, it’s a different story.
For one, his genuine enthusiasm about wine and general exuberance can’t help but engage you. For another, it was actually work related.
EP Brands used Exclusively Housewares back in the summer as a platform to showcase its collaboration with Olly and Stölzle Lausitz, which has seen the launch of three separate collections of glassware.
Discussing how the collaboration came about, Steve Platt, md of EP Brands, explains: “Stölzle Lausitz have supplied Olly’s consumer wine events ‘The Threewinemen’ for around five years. During this time, we have watched Olly’s persona and vibrant profile evolve, which has seen him become the leading celebrity wine expert in the country. So, with the prominence of celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver, James Martin and the Hairy Bikers, to name a few, having strong success in collaborating with tabletop and cookware brands in the retail market, we wanted to evolve this principle within the wine glass market with Olly Smith.”
The three ranges include an everyday drinking collection called ‘Charm’, designed for mid-week ‘cooking dinner at home’ nights; a dining collection called ‘Exuberance’ which aims to add to the experience of having friends over for dinner; plus the soon to be launched premium range, ‘Splendour’ for when you want to treat yourself to some ‘finesse in a glass’.
“We are in a position where there is no other celebrity wine expert that has an endorsed range in the wine glass market,” Steve continues. “This was a strong appeal when starting the project. We are supplying trade customers with a celebrity endorsed product range and going one step further by delivering an experience to the end consumer. We have done this by educating the end consumer in how to enjoy the wine with the glass through Olly’s knowledge and interpretation, via QR codes and POS.”
Olly has also been key in helping to promote the range. “He has been at every meeting we have asked of him without question and reverted on every requirement needed to deliver this point of difference range,” says Steve. “We have held three wine tasting events (two at Exclusively Housewares and one at the AIS INDX show) that went really well. In addition, Olly has been over to Germany to have an immersive experience in how his ranges are made, and for Stölzle Lausitz to really welcome Olly into their family company. We are now working on tasting notes and the opportunity for gin cocktails and similar recipes to enjoy with his glasses.”
Retail reaction has also been strong: “The ranges went into a national chain immediately upon launch, and as a result of its strong reception further bespoke ranges were requested to explore this area of the market. Further independent and national groups are retailing the ranges and we are working with retailers to create bespoke Olly Smith ranges that are tailored to their market demographics demands.”
Steve furthers: “Also, Olly will soon be on national television with one of his ranges which we are very excited and proud of. But this project has a principle where we believe that we identified a gap in the market, and we are successfully expanding into this gap and looking forward to further evolution of the project.”
Indeed, Steve and his team at EP Brands are confident there is scope for further collections with Olly. Following the success of his book, Home Cocktail Bible, Olly has been commissioned to write another cocktail book for release in 2023, so the project will be evolving to include cocktail glasses and utilising QR codes to offer an exclusive cocktail recipe to consumers. In addition, the complementary area of barware is also being worked on.
The range was also nominated in The Licensing Award category in this year’s Excellence in Housewares Awards, a fact of which Steve is immensely proud. While eyeing up awards success and growing those all-important sales are the immediate aims, Steve and his team are also focused on long-term achievements with the collection.
“At the moment we are in the middle of a thriving point of difference licensing project that has been so well received by retailers that we are continuing to deliver on our remit to deliver the ‘Olly Experience’ into people’s homes through his glassware. We remain open to reaction, ideas and opportunities to deliver more success and enjoyment to end consumers, while delivering sales results to Stölzle Lausitz and our customers,” Steve concludes.
Future licensing growth
While this marks the first licensing project for EP Brands, Steve is certainly open to exploring new market opportunities.
“We always embrace the ability to be aware and learn as the market evolves to demands,” he asserts. “The opportunity to explore new market areas and apply a proactive fresh look at a principle, is very appealing for me and my team.”
With this collaboration, Steve believes the company identified that it could deliver much more than simply a glass to hold a drink. “The evolution of the demand for ‘experience’ as well as product is evident across the retail market in general. We have collaborated with, in our opinion, the leading professionals in our field. We have Stölzle Lausitz, the largest crystalline stemware producer in Germany; EP Brands, the largest commercial manager for tabletop glassware in the UK; leading celebrity wine expert, Olly Smith; and licensing agency Licensing Works, headed up by Guy Mottershead who led the Jamie Oliver retail tabletop project for the past decade. Along with companies like Pure Table Top, one of the leading tableware distributors in the UK, and Wineware.co.uk for drop ship projects, one of the leading online suppliers of glassware in the UK, we have completed a perfect jigsaw.”
This feature originally appeared in the autumn 2022 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
