First Quench Retailing owned Thresher and Wine Rack — 6,500 jobs lost in 2009

First Quench Retailing was created in 1998 through the merger of Thresher (owned by Whitbread) and Victoria Wine (owned by Allied Domecq), combining two of Britain's oldest off-licence chains into a single national operator. At its peak the company ran roughly 3,500 shops under brands including Thresher, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up, The Local, Haddows, Victoria Wine, and Drinks Cabin. It was the UK's largest specialist drinks retailer.

The company was bought and sold three times by private equity in under a decade. Nomura Holdings acquired it in 2000 for £225 million. In 2002 it was sold to Terra Firma Capital Partners. In 2007, Vision Capital paid approximately £250 million for the business. Each transaction loaded more debt onto the retailer while supermarkets — Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's — were using alcohol as a loss leader to pull in customers, undercutting specialist off-licences on price.

First Quench struggled throughout 2008–2009 as the financial crisis squeezed consumer spending and supermarket price wars intensified. The company reported a £30 million loss in its final year. Vision Capital had invested in store refits and branding but could not reverse the structural disadvantage: supermarkets could sell alcohol cheaper because they made margin on other groceries, while First Quench needed every bottle to be profitable.

On 29 October 2009, First Quench Retailing entered administration with KPMG appointed as administrator. All 1,300 remaining stores were closed and 6,500 jobs were lost. The Thresher, The Local, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine brands were bought by Dave's Discount Group. Wine Rack was later acquired by Conviviality (Bargain Booze), which itself collapsed in 2018.