Booker and Venus coming together has been amazing for me, because I'm quite heavily led on wet sales in the evening.

There were a lot of products that we specialise in for cocktail making that Booker weren't offering, and now I can get them through Venus.

I now have the same close relationships I’ve got with my Booker contacts with my Venus rep, who's called Marcus Worthington – he has been brilliant. He knows the products so well and he can educate me – not just on Venus products, but also on Booker ones too. He told me about a new wine in the Booker Catering Guide called La Sucule Barbera d’Alba DOC, which he said was amazing. It’s going on my new wine menu that goes live next week.

I can't keep up with which wines are which, so it's been really helpful that my Venus rep can educate me. He told me about a rosé that is going to be a big hit that was grown from Mount Etna volcanic ash – it’s great to have that level of product awareness. He’s able to tell me the whole picture – the story about which vineyard it has come from and what makes it special, as well as telling me what price I can sell it at and what margin I can make from it.

Venus has really helped us meet demand for local products. There are some products that everyone knows locally that obviously Booker wouldn't stock normally, but now Venus is able to supply them. Salcombe is a nearby fishing village, and it’s home to an amazing gin. It’s been great to have a supplier that can meet my demands for my area.

I've even had lines that Venus has stocked specifically for me. Being in Devon, and near Cornwall, cider is big down here and Sandford Orchards has a cult following. I showed Venus how much Sandford Orchards Devon Red Cider I was buying through another supplier to show it was worthwhile them stocking it, and now Venus is stocking and supplying it direct to me.

Venus also supplies beer kegs, so that is a huge advantage for Booker.

I knew there was a gap on my menu with low- and no-alcohol, so we're now doing 0% cider, which I wasn't doing before. I can type in ‘0%’ on the Venus app and I've got a range of wines, gins and vodkas that I can choose from. There’s a really popular 0% gin called Clean G Rhubarb. We have it in one of our mocktails and that’s selling really, really well. I've probably got seven 0% alcoholic drinks now, but before I might have only had two or three.

It’s about just diversifying my offering and now I can get my hands on products that I wouldn't have been able to order from Booker in the past. I'm moving out all of my tonic range from Fever-Tree and switching to Double Dutch. It’s a great product and they’ve got some amazing flavours. it's more of a premium product and it’s something new and exciting that customers haven't seen before.

Something I've been so happy with and that I can only sing their praises for is that Marcus has got a relationship with the vineyards and the producers of the products he's supplying. He's able to put me in touch with them to be able to talk about brand activations.

I've always had a vision of trying to brand my outside area and terrace. Marcus is currently in discussion with a Côtes de Provence rosé vineyard, and they're looking at sponsoring and branding my space for the summertime. Venus has been able to open doors by putting me in contact with people that I normally wouldn't have a chance of getting to speak to.

Glassware is another plus – I am able to go to Venus and request more branded Peroni and Guinness glasses.

Now that Venus and Booker are partners, I've got so much more buying power that I didn't have before. Operationally, it’s been made a lot easier too. With fewer suppliers, I've got fewer invoices to file and process, so the admin fees have gone down with it being all under one roof.

I order from Venus twice a week. If I order products before 12 o’clock on Thursday, they’re here for my Friday delivery, so I’ve had no issues with stock.

We order on the Venus app, which is so easy to do. With previous suppliers, it was all telesales, so you didn't really know what you were getting until the delivery came and they’d give you an invoice. Now, I can just pick up my phone and go through the order history and see what my staff have ordered on the work iPads.

I'm a big advocate and supporter of what Booker have done buying Venus because it's been a huge benefit to my business. I've embraced it and I know how to reap the rewards and make the most of it. It’s been perfect for my business and its needs.