28th June 2020
Looking forward to seeing you again
The decision to re-open our pubs, inns and hotels on the 4th July was a special day and one which we have been working towards for many months and are incredibly excited about - I want to reassure you that we can’t wait to welcome you back again. Nick Attfield and his incredible team have and will continue to give you the safest and warmest Adnams welcome, albeit it may be a little different from before but we will provide you with all the information, have clear signage and our teams will be on hand to help.
Booking will be essential
To help and avoid any disappointment I would encourage you to please book in advance, this will ensure that we can welcome you. We will be re-opening The Swan in Southwold, The Bell in Walberswick, The Plough in Wangford, The White Horse in Blakeney and The Five Bells Wrentham - we will be looking to re-open our other properties in time. We will be updating our websites and social media with the latest information for you.
The tide is changing
Before we began the phased re-opening of our stores last week, it was great to again spend some time with our shop teams who were excited to welcome you, our customers back - from the outset we have focussed on our recovery plans made sure no pebble has been left unturned. Thank you to those of you who have either popped into see the teams to say hello or had some things delivered - we will continue to look at how best we can serve you and we have an end of day review so we can learn and make changes. We trust our teams to make the right decisions at each location. If you wanted to read about the steps, we have taken you can find out more information here.
Recognition for our wines
I am delighted to be able to share with you that we feature again in Harpers Top 50 Independent Wine Merchants. We source from more than 17 countries and have more than 300 different wines, often you will see them being reviewed and recommended in the papers and online as we try our best to bring you the best of the old and the best of the new. James Davis, our Master of Wine leads our talented team including Lydia Harrowven, a Plumpton Wine Graduate, Sophie Barnard and Rosie Culpeck. It was great again to see James in the Top 100 Most Influential People in Wine – a wonderful achievement.
Equality is important to us
As we emerge from lockdown, we must consider what we have seen unfold on our screen and in public places and look to learn from it. We are a purpose led, values driven business and one that is close to the communities we serve, it is important that we have a voice on matters that are important to us. Firstly, so that we can learn and second, in order that we can communicate that any form of discrimination is completely unacceptable to us. At the most fundamental level the BLM movement is about the inequality of opportunity, of experience and of life – freedom, liberation and justice is incredibly important. We always seek to do the right thing and can proudly say that we almost have a 50/50 gender split throughout our business, a comprehensive procurement programme that ensures that we work only with businesses that share our values and we have an inclusive culture that fosters talent. These are just a few things that demonstrate our commitment not to just talk and write about them, but more importantly do things that leads to real change. This issue will be no different and we take our responsibility to do more extremely seriously, our willingness to learn from events presents us with a further opportunity to become an ever more inclusive business and our business will strengthen as a result.
Strange times
There is a home in Southwold not far from us here that is named Seas the Day, a great play on words and something that resonates with me and we continue to do everything we can to earn and keep your trust in us. Whilst everything has been going on we have continued to look to the future and Fergus and his team have been developing some exciting projects for us including, our next collaboration brew with Beavertown in July, that follows on from the successful Camden on-Sea with Camden Town Brewery. Not to be left out, John and the distillery team are developing some ideas for our gins too, we are not standing still.
If you don’t already follow us on our social media channels please do, it’s a sustainable and quick way for us to share what we are doing and keep you updated.
Thank you as ever for your continued support and we look forward to welcoming you back in a matter of days.
Very best wishes,
Andy
