Rue Pinard
Rue Pinard, a specialist merchant in fine wine and rare spirits, partnered with Hweb to transition from generic e-commerce software to a fully automated, industry-specific operating system. By replacing disconnected tools and manual processes with Hweb’s targeted wine-industry functionality, Rue Pinard eliminated operational bottlenecks, scaled its catalogue to roughly 30,000 references, and empowered its lean two-person team to focus on growth and exceptional sourcing.
The Client Profile
A Lean Principal-Trading Model Built for Private Collectors
Founded in January 2023 and based in Prinsenbeek, the Netherlands, Rue Pinard B.V. is a specialist merchant in fine wine and rare spirits. Run by co-founders Bart Laming and Hakan Karaca—who have worked together since 2012 with roots in rare collectible spirits—the company operates strictly as a principal trader on the secondary market, taking ownership of the wine it buys and carrying the risk. Serving successful professionals, business owners, and collectors across Europe, North America, and Asia, Rue Pinard operates without a large standing warehouse; instead, unpooled stock is held directly in bond across jurisdictions and turned over quickly. The company’s core mission is to act as a trusted partner, thoroughly researching provenance and checking condition so clients can build their cellars with confidence and without the burden of verifying authenticity bottle by bottle.
The Challenge
Overcoming E-Commerce Bottlenecks and Cross-Border Complexity
Business Objectives
Rue Pinard set out to enter and scale the fine wine market without adding headcount or tying up capital in a large standing inventory. To properly support a principal-trading model rather than a warehouse-led retail model, the goal was to automate operational processes across all departments, entirely remove manual administration, and connect sales, purchasing, logistics, and customer service into one unified system.
The Bottlenecks
The company’s expansion into fine wine presented new challenges, and the business had outgrown its generic e-commerce software. The team found itself trapped by compounding logistical and operational hurdles at a catalogue scale of tens of thousands of references:
Generic Software Limitations
Shopify could not represent bonded stock, wine-specific workflows, or live professional-market inventory. This resulted in disconnected systems, manual order processing, and operational complexity that grew faster than revenue.
Sourcing and Provenance Risks
The secondary fine wine market carries real risk around provenance and counterfeits. Accessing authenticated stock at scale was extremely difficult for a new entrant without established supplier relationships.
Fragmented Supplier Network
The traditional route would have meant building and maintaining relationships with a scattered network of merchants, producers, and importers—causing heavy operational overhead.
Cross-Border Complexity
International trade introduced severe VAT, excise, and customs complexities, which were heightened after Brexit and made holding stock locally unviable.
The Selection
Choosing Native Wine-Trade Architecture Over Generic ERPs
Rue Pinard was looking for a platform built natively for the wine trade, not a generic ERP adapted to it. They prioritized genuine wine-industry functionality (including bonded-stock and professional-exchange workflows), end-to-end automation, scalability for international growth, and direct integration with the channels collectors actually use to discover wine.
"We did not want to adapt our business to fit software. Hweb adapted the software to our business. That is the difference."
The Solution
A Fully Integrated Operating System Core
Core Features Deployed
Hweb now manages substantially the whole operation for Rue Pinard, automating workflows across order management, purchasing, principal trading, customer management, shipping, and finances:
A Live, Self-Updating Catalogue
An LWIN-based structure keeps a 30,000-reference range consistent and machine-readable. Prices and availability refresh automatically as transactions occur, allowing global presentation without upfront pre-buying or warehousing.
Market-Aligned Pricing
The platform combines exchange price transparency with Wine Searcher integration to track live market levels. On the buying side, specialist references like Wine Market Journal and whisky databases are used to set sharp cost-price targets.
Storage Administration
Hweb handles holding administration in detail for client-owned stock. Because clients' wine stays in bond within the professional market, it can be sold directly back into that market without leaving the bonded trade system.
Discoverability
Direct integrations with Google Merchant and Wine Searcher aggregate reviews across roughly 30,000 references from four sources and render them in eight languages, supporting strong organic search visibility.
The Implementation Experience
The transition from Shopify was smooth. The Hweb team worked closely with Rue Pinard throughout, deeply listening to their operational requirements and configuring workflows perfectly around the existing business model.
"Hweb is the central operating system for everything we do. It replaced the spreadsheets and the disconnected tools, and it lets a two-person team operate at a scale that would normally require a large one.
The transition from Shopify was smooth, and the team understood the wine trade from day one. That gave us the confidence to scale quickly."
The Benefits
Automating Administration to Focus on High-Value Sourcing
Operational Impact
By replacing disconnected spreadsheets with a single integrated platform, repetitive administrative work has been automated. Rue Pinard now successfully manages a global offering of tens of thousands of wines with just a two-person team—achieved without added headcount, a traditional supplier network, or large standing inventory. The company successfully entered and scaled the fine wine market in under a year, reaching approximately €800,000 in purchasing through the exchange alone in its first twelve months.
Client Experience & Sourcing
Customers now benefit from faster order processing, clearer communication, greater transparency, and access to a far broader range of wines through direct professional-market access. With the operational base seamlessly managed by Hweb, the team's attention is freed for what sets Rue Pinard apart: sourcing. Alongside accessing a deep pool of authenticated fine wine through the exchange, Rue Pinard maintains a discreet, direct channel for ultra-rare bottles, recently assembling a complete Pétrus vertical spanning 1999 to 2022 directly for a private client.
Looking Ahead
Rue Pinard operates a technology-led model designed specifically for expansion. The company aims to roughly double its activity without prioritizing headcount growth by keeping fulfillment outsourced and focusing on deepening high-end collector relationships. The Hweb platform is expected to continue supplying the crucial infrastructure and operational efficiency that this future growth requires.