Vintages Purchasing Process

Our unique purchasing process has evolved in concert with our commitment to both release a limited quantity of 120+ new products and present educational feature articles every two weeks. This commitment requires that our buyers purchase products well in advance of planned and scheduled themes.

Preliminary Selection

Vintages issues a Product Needs Letter to the trade twice per year, outlining the types of products the buyers wish to purchase in the coming months. The letter and associated
requirements and deadlines can be found here.

New Item Submission System (NISS)

All applications for product purchase consideration are made online through the LCBO’s New Item Submission System (NISS). NISS is an easy-to-use, web-based tool that allows agents and suppliers to:

  1. View LCBO Product Needs online.
  2. Submit products for review.
  3. Track the process of a product submission online.

Other Product Selection Opportunities

Direct Offers: These online offers require pre-approval by a Category Manager and may be considered for products with proven success in the market or high third-party scores.

Allocations: Vintages negotiates for larger allocations of established products with high global demand. 

Proactive Purchasing: Vintages seeks out new and interesting products from quality-minded producers through trade shows and travel.

 

 

 

Notice to Purchase: Vintages issues a Notice to Purchase (NTP) six weeks after a product has been accepted in our NISS system and all necessary paperwork has been received by the LCBO.

The NTP is sent to your agent and includes details regarding the release date of the products and the quantity to be ordered.

Purchase orders are issued in relation to the shipping times required to meet the specified release date. For this reason, some time may pass between the NTP and the issuing of the PO.

Our expectation is that suppliers hold the quantity and vintage year specified on the NTP until the indicated release date.Details of the NTP and PO process at Vintages can be provided by your agent.

Please click here to learn more about agent representation.

Sales Performance Targets

Vintages buyers’ expectation is that a product will achieve a minimum of 75% sell-through two months post-release. Failure to do so may result in a 20% rebate being imposed on remaining inventories. Agents and suppliers can monitor sales for individual products through the LCBO’s Sale of Data website: Sale of Data (lcbo.com).

Payment Inquiries

Our standard payment term is 90 days upon receival of product in our warehouse. Payment inquiries should be directed to our Finance Division at 416-365-5723 or accounts.payable@lcbo.com.

Re-orders

Once a product has sold out, it is generally not re-ordered, as the Vintages model is to offer a constantly changing assortment of products.