Wine Merchant to shut Creve Coeur store

Wine Merchant Ltd. plans to close its Creve Coeur location, which will bring the wine and cheese retailer’s operations to one store, its original location at 20 S. Hanley in Clayton.

Wine Merchant also had a location in Ellisville at one time.

Manager Rich Gotsch, who said he works at both Clayton and Creve Coeur, said the closing of the store at 12669 Olive Blvd. could come before mid-February, depending on how the current clearance sale progresses.

He said the company’s impending lease expiration, coupled with the economy, played a role in deciding to reduce operations.

“The lease is up for renewal, and we’re staring down the double barrel of the economic mess,” co-owner John Nash told the Business Journal. “Everyone is affected. And I’m not a gambling man.”

Nash started the business with co-owner Al Prince in 1992 — during a recession Nash pointed out. Nash said the company currently doesn’t plan to reduce its staff of 20 full- and part-time workers.

Nash said he sees the decision to focus on the Clayton location as a “plus” and consulted a number of interested parties before making the decision, including Wine Merchant’s bank and CPA firm, Private Bank and O’Donnell, Bonebrake & Co., respectively; and Nash’s father-in-law, whose family has run a wine business in Washington, D.C., since the 1930s.

Business at Wine Merchant’s Clayton store is up and revenue is strong, Nash said, although he declined to disclose exact figures.

“We’re focusing on things that are really productive,” he said. Certain categories lead the growth, with cheese business up 40 percent, with sales of liquor as well as wines under $25 a bottle doing particularly well, Nash said.

He added that wine classes have been selling out, so the store is looking at adding more classes in the second or third quarter.