The managing director of wholesaler, distributor and off-licence operator Galvin's Wine and Spirits is overseeing a significant expansion of the company's Galvin's Carry Out retail brand.

"We hope by the end of January to have 55 outlets open, and we plan to double the number of Carry Out outlets over the next two years, " he says. If Galvin can follow through on his ambition, that would take the chain past the 100 store mark just four years on from its launch.

Just as fellow Cork wholesaler Musgraves has done with the Supervalu and Centra grocery brands, Galvin's is signing up independent retailers, which it supplies with product through its wholesale and distribution arm. Two years after the launch of the chain, Galvin says Carry Out accounts for about half of the company's sales.

Galvin's is an unlimited company and therefore not required to file accounts with the Companies' Office, but John Galvin says it expects 2005 turnover to hit 64m.

"We plan to double that in the next two and a half years, " he adds. The young Corkman, still a year shy of his 30th birthday, clearly does not want for confidence. He describes himself as a "very aggressive and ambitious person".

Galvin returned home from a barely begun career as an investment banker in Boston eight years ago. His father, who opened his first offlicence on the site of the family's pub on Bandon Road in 1968, said he had received an offer for one of his four Cork shops. "I basically said, 'Right, I'll come home to Ireland and buy it'."

Having worked Friday and Saturday nights, and school holidays, in the shops during his teens, he figured he knew enough about the business to run the shop. He ended up buying all four and, a couple of years later, bought his father out of the wholesale side of the business, established in the 1980s.

John Galvin borrowed to finance the purchase of the four initial shops, but says he has since made money through a number of business interests outside the drinks industry, including a "large property portfolio".

Those alternative income streams helped fund the purchase of the family business.

"I've committed very large resources and will commit more if necessary, " he says.

Although John has three other siblings, two sisters and one brother, he says there was no rancour within the family when he moved into the driving seat.

"It has worked out very, very well for us in that a lot of my family are still involved in the business in one way or another, " he says. John's brother, Barry, runs an independent off-licence and sister, Sarah, runs Heritage Hampers. Needless to say, both source wine and spirits from Galvin's.

With the torch passed to a new generation, Galvin spent 10m on a new distribution facility and launched the Carry Out chain. After three years running the four offlicences, he says he learned to appreciate the value of having of a large supplier in support.

He believed there would be a lot of independent offlicence owners that would be interested in signing up with Galvin's to benefit from the increased purchasing power.

The concept found ready acceptance in Cork and Kerry, where Galvin's was already well known. Within the first year, Carry Out had signed up 15 shops.

Having established a foothold for the brand, Galvin has been working hard to extend its reach. The 40 new store openings over the past two years include off-licences in Limerick, Tipperary, Wexford, Roscommon, Kildare and two in Dublin.

"We're pretty much national at this stage, " Galvin says, and the company is in discussions with "about 35 to 40 operators at the moment".

He believes several trends in the industry are making life more difficult for independent operators and, as a result, making the Carry Out offer more attractive.

The dramatic increase in the volume of wine and beer sold by multiples such as Tesco, Dunnes, Aldi and Lidl, as well as the symbol grocery retail groups such as Spar, has depressed margins.

There are few large offlicence chains in the Republic with the buying power to compete.

The significant set-up costs involved - a licence alone costs 160,000 - also means the market has developed along very different lines to that in the UK, where a licence can be acquired for as little as £400.

Whereas Winemark, the largest operator in the North, owns more than 75 outlets, the largest independent chain in the Republic, O'Brien's Fine Wines, numbers only 22 shops.

Galvin claims signing up to Carry Out can mean an increase of as much as 10% in its operators' margins. The savings arise because Galvin's sources its stock, as far as possible, directly from producers rather than through agents.

"Probably about 80% of our wine sales we source directly from the vineyards, " says Galvin. The company receives stock through its own bonded warehouse in Cork and distributes it from the new 10m facility in Mahon.

Galvin's expertise has historically been in wines. It was the first Irish distributor to supply popular Australian brand Hardy's and Chilean label Errazuriz, says Galvin with pride. Over the next "12 to 24 months", though, the company plans to source more speciality beers and spirit brands not currently available in the Irish market.

Galvin sees significant growth potential in the speciality sector. "We want to move away from Heineken and Budweiser. We'll still stock them, of course, but we're looking to increase the range. We're trying to break people's habits, " he says.

Galvin believes people will find that many other smaller brands offer the same, or better, quality as drinkers are used to at more affordable prices. The challenge will be to get them to try the brands in the first instance.

Positioning and promotion in-store will be key to moving drinkers away from the multibillion euro brands, he says.

The plan is for Carry Out stores to give pride of place to the group's own brands, sourced directly from suppliers, rather than filling the most readily accessible shelf space with the usual suspects.

"We've done this with our wines, " he says. "People go in looking for a particular brand and we show them another one." Offer attractive alternatives at the right price and customers might bite.

At its current rate of expansion, Galvin's should have a lot more bait in the water when the next new year rolls round.

THE MAN AND HIS COMPANY

JOHN GALVIN
Age: 29
Background: Studied accountancy at University College Cork. Left Ireland for an investment banking job in Boston in 1997. Returned to buy an off-licence his father was thinking of selling, but ended up acquiring all four.

Later bought the associated wholesale business.

Hobbies: "I'm very much into watersports, cycling and adventure or adrenaline sports generally, " says Galvin.

GALVIN'S WINE & SPIRITS

Financial Information: Unlimited company but Galvin says it expects to post turnover of 64m in the financial year 2005.
Background: Barry Galvin opened his first off-licence in Cork in 1968. Added a second in 1981 and opened two more shortly after. Also set up a distribution and wholesale business. Forged links with over 50 vineyards, from which it still buys most of its stock directly.