How Sylvion Improved Sourcing Speed and Margins Through Liv‑ex
Sylvion uses Liv‑ex to source mature, fine wines faster for private clients. Global market access and broker support help streamline sourcing while improving margins.
Sylvion is a specialised fine wine business based in Prague, Czech Republic, serving high‑end private clients. We have interviewed Jakub Šebela, a former sommelier and now trader at Sylvion. The focus is on sourcing mature, ready‑to‑drink fine wines that can be difficult to access through traditional local channels.
Need: Reliably sourcing a wide range of mature, ready-to-drink wine
Over time, Sylvion’s private client requests became increasingly specific and challenging to fulfil domestically, particularly for vintage Champagne and Bordeaux. As local distributors largely focus on new and recent releases, sourcing wines at optimal points of maturity became a persistent challenge.
Before Liv-ex, sourcing meant manually searching platforms such as Wine-Searcher, contacting multiple merchants individually, waiting for responses, verifying condition, negotiating price, managing invoicing and arranging logistics – a time-consuming and inefficient process, especially for a one-person business.
Jakub then discovered Liv‑ex, the global exchange for fine wine, opening the door to trade with over 500 merchants worldwide, and access hundreds of thousands of wines – with the simplicity of only needing to deal with Liv-ex on the other side of every purchase. Even more; Liv‑ex also manages the entire trade end‑to‑end, from transaction through to settlement.
Solution: The most liquid Exchange for fine wine, supported by dedicated brokers
Liv-ex is now central to Sylvion’s process.
- For specific client requests, wines can be found quickly and live offers benchmarked against the market using Liv-ex fine wine price data.
- If live pricing is not attractive, there is the option to place bids on listed/off-market stock with the flexibility to test different price levels.
- His dedicated Liv-ex broker plays a key role in surfacing relevant opportunities – especially offline offers and larger parcels
The broker relationship is especially valuable when time is limited. Jakub’s broker understands both the wider market and Sylvion’s own buying preferences, allowing opportunities to be acted on and progressed quickly and efficiently.
Result: Faster, streamlined sourcing with stronger margins
Time saved
Requests that once took hours or days can now be completed in minutes. For example, sourcing a wine such as Sassicaia 2015 can be done by checking market pricing on Liv‑ex, placing a competitive bid and letting Liv‑ex handle verification, documentation and logistics – all in around five minutes.
Liv-ex combines fast, reliable sourcing with expert broker support, allowing me to consistently source strong deals for me and my private clients – without the effort Jakub Šebela Sylvion
Greater confidence and client focus
Transparent pricing, clear condition standards and reliable execution allow Sylvion to buy with confidence on behalf of private clients, reducing administration and freeing up time for client relationships.
Improved margins and access to wine
Access to off‑market stock, competitive bidding and broker‑led opportunities has improved buying prices and unlocked trades that would previously have been missed.
What’s Next with Liv-ex – Strategic Selling?
Looking ahead, Jakub is considering selling through the Exchange as well. While serving clients will remain his first priority, Liv‑ex also creates the option to buy larger parcels opportunistically, hold them in Liv‑ex warehouses, and sell/release stock later when market conditions improve.
Interested to learn how Liv-ex can help your business? Book a demo below.