Wine RetailingCellars - The Big Wine Warehouse, a new no frills wine shop on the Naas Road, aims to be theRyanair of the wine trade.

When is shop not a shop? When it's a boutique, emporium or "luxury retail outlet", rebranded in an attempt at grandeur.

Wine traders have traditionally gone for "merchant" as their euphemism of choice. After all, something as fabulous as wine would never be sold in something as ordinary as shop.

Not so for Mr Mark Delaney, who prefers to call a spade a spade, and a shop a warehouse. The full title of his 650 sq m (7,000 sq ft) "wine experience" on the Naas road is Cellars: The Big Wine Warehouse, a suitably matter-of-fact name given that the inspiration for the concept comes from Australia.

Former Brown Thomas marketing director Mr Delaney opened Cellars with business partner Mr Peter O'Grady Walshe earlier this year in an effort to bring down what they saw as a cartel of high prices within the industry and to "strip the pomp normally associated with wine buying".

Taking their lead from the successful Dan Murphy's wine cellars in Australia, the two partners bought a car showroom on the Naas road for a price over €100,000, and stripped it down to what they call a "theatrical retail environment" with an open plan and minimal shelving.

The minimum purchase is a case of 12 bottles, but the buyer can mix the brands in the case whatever way they please.

Most cusomers go for two or more cases. By saving on in-store decoration and selling wine in cases, the Cellars team claim to offer a 15 to 20 per cent discount on high street prices.

"We're offering the same product as anywhere else but with dedicated service and lower prices," he says.

"We provide a warm environment for shopping that is easily navigable. Our staff are very wine-savvy and we offer tastings and samples all day every day. We're like the Ryanair of the wine business in that we cut out the frills to offer you the lowest prices."

Cellars currently offers about 500 different wines using the major distributors, but Mr Delaney hopes to be able to source new names for the Irish market directly from vineyards and local producers on the continent. "We won't be focussing all our efforts on fine wines, but at the middle to upper middle end of the market," he says.

Cellars intends to branch out across the country over the next 12 months, with a target of five stores by the end of 2005, all on main roads out of town, with an ideal floor space of 464 sq m (5,000 sq ft (check).

Mr Delaney points to increased wine consumption in Ireland as a reason for optimism. "Even though we in Ireland still have the lowest consumption of wine per capita in western Europe, the wine market here has risen significantly over the past decade, while the beer and spirits market is declining," he says.

"Market share for wine was at 15.9 per cent at the end of last year, compared to 8 per cent in 1994. During the same period, beer dropped from 54.5 to 65.5."