First Quench Retailing was the largest independent off-licence retail chain in the UK, with around 1,200 shops operating under several retail brands, though all have now been closed. Its head office was based in Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City

-Economy:Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:*Air Link Systems*Baxter*British Lead Mills*Carl Zeiss...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. On 29 October 2009 it was announced that the company had entered into administration.

History

The company was originally formed as First Quench Retailing by the merger of the Whitbread

Whitbread

Whitbread PLC is a global hotel, coffee shop and restaurant company headquartered in Dunstable, United Kingdom. Its largest division is Premier Inn, which is the largest hotel brand in the UK with around 580 hotels and over 40,000 rooms. Its Costa Coffee chain has around 1,600 stores across 25...

 owned Threshers and the Allied Domecq

Allied Domecq

Allied Domecq PLC was an international company, headquartered in Bristol, UK that operated spirits, wine, and quick service restaurant businesses. It was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent but has been acquired by Pernod Ricard.-History:...

 owned Victoria Wine in August 1998. This brought together the 1,470 Thresher Wine Shop, Drinks Cabin, Wine Rack and Huttons brands with Victoria Wine Cellars, Haddows, Martha's Vineyard, and The Firkin. Allied Domecq later sold their 50% of the company to Punch Taverns

Punch Taverns

Punch Taverns plc is the largest pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 6,800 leased, tenanted and managed pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire...

 in September 1999.

In November 1991, Threshers, then owned by Whitbread alone, bought the Peter Dominic Group from Grand Metropolitan

Diageo

Diageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....

 for £50m. The Bottoms Up brand of shops, formerly owned by Peter Dominic, was retained. Peter Dominic was separated from GrandMet's IDV group in 1989 to become a retail division.

The company was purchased by the Japanese private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm Nomura Holdings

Nomura Holdings

Nomura Holdings, Inc. is a Japanese financial holding company, and a principal member of the Nomura Group.In October 2008 the company acquired Lehman Brothers Holdings's investment banking and equities unit in Asia and Europe and kept on most of its employees. Nomura paid $225 million for the...

 in October 2000 for £225m.

Terra Firma Capital Partners

Terra Firma Capital Partners

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd is a leading U.K.-based private equity firm, best known for its failed investment in British music company EMI. Financier Guy Hands founded the firm in 2002 through the spin-off of Nomura Principal Finance Group...

 purchased the company in April 2002.

The collapse of rival retailer Unwins

Unwins

Unwins was a Kent-based chain of 381 off-licences with outlets focused on London and the South East. Unwins was founded in 1843 and went insolvent on 19 December 2005. 200 Unwin stores were subsequently sold to rival Thresher Group....

led to Threshers buying 200 stores, with the remaining 170 stores closing. The stores were rebranded as either 'The Local', 'Thresher' or 'Wine Rack'.

In June 2007, Thresher Group was sold to the equity company Vision Capital for around £250 million.

Following a number of changes to branding, the company was renamed First Quench Retailing from Threshers Group.

FQR in Administration

• On 29 October 2009 it was announced that First Quench Retailing had entered into administration, and KPMG were appointed administrators.
• 81 redundancies were made at the company's head office in Welwyn Garden City on 30 October.

The brand names Thresher's, The Local, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine were subsequently purchased by Midlands-based newsagent, off-licence and convenience store operator Dave's Discount Group.

Previous branding

Brands trading prior to entering administration-

Primarily Wine with Beer/Ale/Cider

Wine Rack (True Blue)- Customer Service and Product Knowledge driven

Value and convenience goods including alcohol

The Local (Yellow)

Threshers (Red)

Scottish Brand, with main focus on Wine/Beer/Cider/Ale

Haddows (Purple)

Brands which were phased out or renamed after takeovers or restructures-

Wine-led

Bottoms Up (offering up to 650 brands of wine in one shop)

Wine Rack

Victoria Wine

Peter Dominic

Martha's Vineyard

Drink retailing

Threshers

Drinks Cabin Unwins

Firkin Off-Licence

Hutton's

Drinks Direct

External links

• First Quench Retailing (www.firstquench.co.uk)
• Vision Capital (www.visioncapital.com)