From Zero to €800,000 in 12 months: How Rue Pinard Built a Fine Wine Business without Stock or Suppliers
This case study highlights how Rue Pinard has enabled rapid entry into the fine wine market through Liv‑ex, building scale without stock or suppliers.
Building a fine wine business from scratch is slow, complex and expensive
How do you enter the global fine wine market without an established supplier network, bonded storage, or the resources to manage complex logistics?
For most merchants, the answer is: you don’t, at least not quickly or at scale.
But for Rue Pinard, a Netherlands-based wine and spirits business, the challenge was different. With a lean two-person team consisting of Bart Laming and Hakan Karaca, and long experience in sourcing rare spirits, they saw an opportunity to expand into fine wine. The barrier was not demand, but infrastructure: access to trusted stock and the ability to operate efficiently across borders.
Within 12 months of entering the market, Rue Pinard had generated approximately €800,000 in purchases through Liv-ex, activity that would not have been possible using traditional routes to market.
The Challenge: Building Supply, Trust and Scale Simultaneously
While Rue Pinard already had expertise in moving high-value bottles globally, fine wine presented fundamentally different challenges.
Sourcing was the first hurdle. Unlike spirits, the fine wine secondary market carries more risks around provenance and counterfeits. For a new entrant without established supplier relationships, accessing authenticated stock at scale was difficult.
At the same time, the traditional route to market would have required building, managing and maintaining relationships with a fragmented network of merchants, producers, and importers, a process that often takes years and significant operational overhead.
Logistics added further complexity. Cross-border trade, particularly post-Brexit, introduced challenges around VAT, excise, and customs, while holding stock locally was not viable due to the cost and infrastructure required.
To succeed, Rue Pinard needed a different model. One that would allow them to access supply, operate efficiently, and scale, without increasing headcount or taking on inventory risk.
The Approach: Replacing Complexity with a Single Connection
Immediate access to global supply
By using the Liv-ex Exchange, Rue Pinard gained access to a highly liquid marketplace of fine wine from trusted counterparties, without the need to build and manage a supplier network.
Instead of navigating multiple relationships, they could source globally through a single partner, significantly reducing operational complexity.
Expanding range without holding stock
Through integration with the Exchange, delivered by one of Liv-ex’s trusted software partners HWEB, Rue Pinard adopted a more scalable, technology-led operating model.
They can now offer a broad and constantly updating range of wines on their website, with prices and availability automatically refreshed as transactions occur.
This allows them to present tens of thousands of wines to customers globally, without purchasing and holding inventory upfront.
Removing the logistical and operational burden
Liv-ex also simplified settlement, handling, and delivery. Wines sourced through the platform are covered by standardised condition contracts (SIB), stored in-bond, and managed by Liv-ex through an end-to-end settlement process.
For Rue Pinard, this meant they could operate internationally without needing to manage logistics, compliance, or physical storage – removing significant barriers to growth.
The Result: Rapid Growth with a Lean Business Model
With Liv-ex forming the foundation of its fine wine strategy, Rue Pinard was able to enter the market quickly and operate at scale.
- €800,000 in purchases in the first 12 months
- Approximately 60% of the business now driven by Liv-ex
- A global offering of tens of thousands of wines, managed by a two-person team
Crucially, this growth has been achieved without the need to build a traditional supplier network, invest in inventory, or expand headcount.
Liv-ex made it possible to launch and scale a global fine wine business in under a year — with no upfront inventory, no supplier network, and no added headcount. Bart Laming Managing Partner at Rue Pinard
A Scalable Model for Growth
Today, Rue Pinard operates a technology-driven model designed for expansion. With plans to grow globally and double turnover, Liv-ex continues to provide the supply, infrastructure, and operational efficiency required to support that growth.
What this means for merchants
Rue Pinard’s experience highlights a shift in how fine wine businesses can be built.
Where entering the market once required years of relationship-building and significant upfront investment, it is now possible to access supply, offer breadth, and operate globally through a single connection.
Instead of spending years building supplier relationships and infrastructure, Liv‑ex gave us immediate access to trusted global supply — so we could focus on growth. Bart Laming Managing Partner at Rue Pinard
For merchants looking to expand into fine wine, or scale an existing business more efficiently, the model is increasingly clear: reduce complexity, increase access, and focus resources on growth.