Oddbins drafts in advisers to consider future

Oddbins has hired Spectrum Corporate Finance to assess matters and the retailer’s chief executive, Simon Baile, has acknowledged that he faces hard decisions.

A decision on what can be done is likely next Tuesday. “We’re having a good thrash about how we take the company forward to be a force for the future,” Baile told the Daily Telegraph.

Asked whether that day would be “crunch time” Baile said: “We’re having a good kick at the tyres. That’s the time when we’ll make the decision on which way we’re going to go.”

The 128-store retailer has had to cope with the increasing power of the supermarkets in the drinks category, as well as fragile consumer confidence, which is understood to have affected performance during the key Christmas period.

Baile’s father built up Oddbins in the 1960s and 1970s and he took charge of it in 2008 after winning control from French company Castel.