Culver Street (Trading) Ltd, Vinsignia Ltd and the WIA

Château Gazin, Pomerol

Below is an anonymous comment left on the post about Premier Cru and Cult Wine Ltd. I'm not posting it there because it is not relevant. Instead here is a separate post covering Culver Street (Trading), Vinsignia Ltd and the Wine Investment Association.    

'Hi Jim,

A curious thing: having checked the Wine Investment Association website it seems that Culver Street Trading are no longer a registered member but that another company of which Hugo Rose (chairman of the Wine Investment Association) has miraculously taken its place. On further investigation, it seems that Culver Street are now in liquidation

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2172343

So, the chairman's company is in liquidation and ghas been replaced by the WIA by another company he has an interest in. This raises many questions, least of which is, if Amphora Portfolio Management, who's membership has been "pending" for almost two years have not in that time had their audit and passed their initiation into the association, how on earth have this new company had the time to suddenly pass the audit? Have the WIA simply sneaked this company in through the back door? And is it a glowing recommendation of the WIA that the chairman of the association's company has gone into liquidation?'

Anon

Thanks for your comment. 

Firstly Hugo Rose MW was never a director of Culver Street (Trading) Ltd. He was a consultant to the company. His consultancy ceased in June 2014. You are correct that Culver Street (Trading) Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation. 82-year-old Richard Wheeler is now the sole director in post. 

Vinsignia Ltd was formed on 15.12.2009 but not with that name. The company name changed to Vinsignia on 21.2.2012 and Hugo Rose MW was appointed as a director on 12.11.2012. The last accounts were filed on 31.12.2011 as a dormant company. The company's latest accounts have been overdue since 31st March 2014, although Hugo Rose says they have recently been filed.

I understand that Vinsignia Ltd and another company have taken over Culver Street (Trading) Ltd's customers and their stocks. This includes stock in the UK as well as in France. 

As far as Vinsignia Ltd and the WIA is concerned I assume a new audit has been carried out – given that Rose has been a director since November 2012 there would have been time for this to be done. 

I would agree that it does not reflect well that Vinsignia Ltd's accounts have not been filed on time and that a First Gazette was published on 1st July 2014, which was subsequently cancelled on 12th July. 

It is also curious that Amphora Portfolio Management Ltd's full WIA membership remains pending. As is the case with a number of wine retailers the WIA needs to bring its code of practice into line with the contracts legislation, which came into force across the EU on 13th June 2014.  

  

Wine Investment Association: three memberships pending

 WIA: the four founder members: L-R; Adrian Lenagan (Provenance Fine Wines Ltd - pending),

David Jackson (Albany Portfolio Management Ltd – now: Amphora Portfolio Management- pending), 

Hugo Rose MW (Culver Street Ltd), Peter Shakeshaft (Vin-X Ltd)

'Hi Jim, three of the four companies involved in the Wine Investment Association are still being listed as membership being "Pending". Meaning they haven't yet completed the audit that is required to become members. As the association went live in February, and it is now August, could the chairman of the Association, Hugo Rose, please give your readers an update? Have the audits taken place, and if not, why not? As these companies are no-doubt benefiting from their perceived membership, yet seem not to have taken - or passed - the key test for membership, this is a question I'm sure a lot of people would want answered.'

Hugo Rose MW: chairman of WIA

•••

Update: 27th August 2013 – now we are two:

Provenance Fine Wines Ltd have recently become accredited bringing full membership of the WIA to two. 

Update: 19th October 2013 – now we are three:
Culver Street Ltd have recently become accredited bringing full membership of the WIA to three. 

Update: 17th March 2015 – now we are still three
Amphora Portfolio Management became an accredited member of the WIA during 2014. However, Vin-X Ltd has become the parent company of Provenance Fine Wines Ltd as it holds 100% of the £100 share capital and Peter Shakeshaft was appointed as a director of the company on 1st June 2014. Adrian Lenagan remains a director.   
    

What would make a phone call about wine investment to a non-client acceptable?

Following a meeting before Easter with some members of the WIA and two members of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, here is in draft form (comments and suggestions are greatly welcomed) the conditions that I think would make a call to a non-client call acceptable.

A cold call is one to a stranger who does not anticipate a call and has not expressed an interest in wine investment. Such calls are not acceptable for the purposes of investment and are a high-pressure sales technique.

Calls can be made to non-clients who have expressed an interest in wine investment and who are aware that having expressed such an interest they can reasonably expect a follow up call. Increasingly this interest is likely to be expressed through a website. Companies should keep records of these leads to show that they were properly established leads and be able to produce them if challenged. If adopted by the WIA, these records should form part of the annual monitoring process.   

Obviously there have to be the necessary safeguards in place to ensure that potential client is not subject to inappropriate and high-pressure sales. At the start of the call the potential client must be given the opportunity to end the call. If calls are monitored then those called must be made aware that the calls are monitored. The threshold of high-pressure sales should be lower for the elderly and vulnerable.  

When a client places an order over the phone they must be made aware of their right to cancel as in line with the Distance Selling Regulations’ legislation.

This draft of acceptable conditions will have to take cognisance of any proposals and changes that are made by the new The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has now taken over from the Financial Services Authority.  

***

Hugo Rose MW, chairman of the WIA, has called on the fine wine trade to support self-regulation and the WIA here in Harpers. A prerequisite of getting such support should be ruling out cold calls – ie those to strangers who have no reason to expect a call about wine wine investment.