Fast-growing Suffolk business Bermar Collection is the result of a conversation in a pub in 1990. But, as DUNCAN BRODIE reports, a lot of hard work and good ideas have also been involved along the way.

East Anglian Daily Times: A twin-pod wine store and preservation unit from Bermar International.A twin-pod wine store and preservation unit from Bermar International. (Image: Archant)

When you order a decent glass of wine in a pub, a restaurant or a hotel, do you ever spare a thought as to whether your drinking establishment of choice will be able to sell the rest of the bottle before it goes off?

Quite possible not (I certainly don’t, for one) but were it not for a reliable solution having been found to the problem of preserving wine once a bottle has been opened, the choice and quality of wines on offer by the glass would be much poorer than customers have become accustomed to.

Bermar International, based in a small unit tucked away just off the A12 at Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich, is the company behind the Le Verre de Vin wine preservation system which is now in use by more than 40,000 customers world-wide.

And having just celebrated its first 25 years, the business – which trades as Bermar Collection – it is gearing up for the next 25 by relaunching its product range with a stylish new look designed to capitalise on the growing level of interest in wine around the globe, from established wine-producing (and consuming) countries to fast-growing developing nations.

Bermar Collection was originally formed by Richard Berresford and David Marr, friends who were each already running other businesses. Richard remains managing director and, last year, was joined in the business by his son, Tom, as operations director, with David now retired.

Tom, who has brought with him experience in the digital media and financial services industries, says it was a shared enthusiasm for wine which led the founders to create the business.

“The story goes that they were in a pub bemoaning the fact that you never seemed to be able to get a good glass of wine in a pub,” he says, “and they decided to try to do something about it.”

The problem was the (entirely understandable) reluctance of proprietors to open a good bottle of wine for a customer wanting a single glass, at the risk of either having to pour much of the rest away, at a loss, or serving it in less than perfect condition, resulting in a dissatisfied customer.

What was required was a simple, efficient way of resealing a bottle in such a way that the wine would remain fresh for long enough to avoid an unacceptable level of wastage.

Richard, something of a serial entrepreneur, was already involved in running a business manufacturing industrial seals, which meant that they were not starting entirely from stratch.

All the same, it took a good deal of experimenting before they came up a solution - or, to me more precise, two solutions, as still wines and sparkling wines present different challenges.

Preserving a still wine involves creating a vacuum so that the wine does not react with air. The environment inside a bottle of sparkling wine, however, consists of carbon dioxide and so a presevation system needs to replicate this by injecting CO2, instead of simply creating a vacuum.

Hand-pumped vacuum systems for preserving still wine were already available but, says Tom, these are not easy to use effectively. “If you pump too much you can strip the wine of some of its flavour,” he says. “Pump too little and you leave some air inside the bottle and you might as well not have bothered.”

The Bermar Collection system involves a rubber stopper through which air can be extracted and CO2 injected in precisely the quantity required, relative to the amount of wine left in the bottle.

Using the Le Verre de Vin system, both still and sparkling wines can be kept in good condition for three weeks - a significant commercial advantage for hospitality businesses in terms of reduced wastage. (Another happy result, as it happens, is that, with sparkling wines, the system results in a satisfying “pop” each time the stopper is removed, as if a fresh bottle has just been opened.)

Marketing the system initially involved the twin challenges of raising the expectations of pub customers in terms of quality, so that they would order more wine, and assuring pub operators that they no longer had to worry about pouring most of an opened bottle away, so giving them the confidence to offer more, and better, wines by the glass.

Early users of the Bermar Collection system included local Suffolk venues such as Seckford Hall, near Woodbridge, Hintlesham Hall, near Ipswich, and the Riverside restaurant at Woodbridge. This was followed by larger roll-outs by Whitbread across many of its restaurants and by brewer Youngs in its pubs in London.

The feedback was positive and the rest, as they say, is history. The system is now in use by more than 40,000 customers in more than 80 countries, with the firm’s UK customer list including most of the big names in the hospitality sector.

In the UK, Bermar Collection sells direct to restaurants, hotels and pubs (Mitchells & Butlers and Bury St Edmunds-based Greene King are among its major customers) and also through wine suppliers who offer the system in order to help win accounts.

Among the leading restaurateurs and venues which use Bermar Collection equipment are Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, the Savoy and the Ritz. In fact, all three of Britain’s current three Michelin star restaurants now use the system.

Internationally, Bermar also sells direct to some big customers but 90% of overseas sales are made through a network of just over 40 distributors. This approach, it finds, works well, not least because rules surrounding the supply of alcohol vary greatly from one market to another.

Branded versions of the system are also produced for a number of Champagne houses, including Tattinger.

The international customer base is widely distributed, including not only – as one would expect – major wine producing areas such as the United States, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand but also in developing nations where consumption of wine is on the increase.

However, the Bermar Collection machines are still assembled in-house at the factory in Martlesham. “We could have outsourced the manufacturing years ago but that is never how we have worked,” says Tom. “We make them here, stick a ‘Made in the UK’ label on them, and that works very well.”

The Le Verre de Vin system can be mounted discreetly below the bar top, on the bar itself or on a wall, with each version being all its own in terms of design.

The below-the-bar unit is a model of compactness, the bar-top design is an elegant tower shape (which also forms the basis of a portable version, with the addition of a stand for stability) and the wall-mounted machine takes the iconic form of a bottle.

Bermar Collection also produce a “Pod Bar” range of temperature-controlled cabinets for wine which also incorporate the preservation technology.

These are available as a single cabinet, as twin cabinets, either side by side or one above the other, or as a full four cabinet cube providing separate storage for red, white, sparkling and dessert wines.

Both the Bermar Collection brand and its product range have just undergone a re-design, with the new look having been officially unveiled at last week’s Hotelympia hospitality and foodservice event at Excel London.

The Bermar Collection has been located at Martlesham Heath throughout its history, initially being based in Betts Avnue, just around the corner from its current home in Anson Road.

“We have nevery left Martlesham Heath; we have just moved along the road or around the corner as we have grown bigger and bigger, and it probably will not be long before we move again,” says Tom.

Bermar Collection currently has a workforce of 25, including production and development, separate UK and International sales teams and office staff at Martlesham Heath, plus four service engineeers on the road.

A total of seven new staff have started with the business since last June, including the company’s first apprentice who arrived in December.

Annual sales currently total around £2.4million, split roughly 50-50 between UK sales and exports, but he sees huge potential for further overseas growth. This is particularly the case in China, with its fast-growing ranks of middle class earners, although there is also scope for plenty of growth yet in more developed nations too.

Another potential source of growth is the development of new products, which could include models targeted at the domestic market, with people now not only more “savvy” about wine in terms of wanting to enjoy it at its best but also being more aware of the potential health issues surrounding alcohol and the need to moderate consumption rather than finishing a bottle in one evening.

Whatever happens, Bermar Collection will not be resting on its laurels. “We are now gearing up for the next 25 years, says Tom. “We have a plan in place to double turnover by 2020.”