IAN CLARKE, 50, has more than 25 years’ experience in the wine industry, after starting his career with Liverpool wine merchant David Scatchard. This was his day:

He is the managing director of The Purple Wine Company, an independent wine merchant based in Liverpool, which supplies to the on-trade and also direct to the public.

6am:Being a morning person, I’m up early and then have the difficult task of waking my three boys, George, Alex and Chris. As a creature of habit, breakfast is usually coffee and cereal, which I eat while quickly scanning over my emails and appointments for the day on my iPhone.

7.30am:I head into our Liverpool city centre office from my home in Crosby to have a brief catch-up meeting with my sales manager, Rory, to discuss orders. The period leading up to Christmas is always busy, so I find regular meetings really helpful in terms of assessment and organisation.

8.30am:I call our supplier and strategic shareholder, Morgenrot Group, to discuss recent deliveries and stock issues. Purple Wine entered a trading agreement with Morgenrot Group earlier this year which means we can offer exclusive wines from across the world, with more variety and choice for customers.

Also on the agenda is our range of Christmas packages. This is usually a lengthy process as we have so much choice now with packaging imported from Germany and Spain.

9.30am:Off to a meeting with our PR agency to outline and develop our strategy for 2010. These early planning meetings are really important to ensure we have a clear outlook.

11am:I dash down Old Hall Street to my next meeting with Jenny Stewart at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the format of our wine club.

12.30pm:I manage to grab a quick coffee and a sandwich, before I embark on an afternoon of meetings.

1pm:Off to The Vaults, on Cook Street, to discuss its wine requirements for the week ahead. We also begin to plan our next lunch event, which incorporates a wine tasting session

The lunches are always very popular and we work extremely hard to find niche or cult wines to grab people’s attention.

2.30pm:Over to Birkenhead, to meet Mark Kershaw from the bespoke catering company, Pickled Walnut, to discuss forthcoming events. They handle events occurring in the Anglican Cathedral and Palm House, so the choice of wine is critical.

4pm:A conference call with our website designers, Rippleffect, addresses changes to our website. These include new wine descriptions, pricing, upcoming events and special customer offers.

Our online presence is a really important aspect of the business and allows retail customers to access our wines.

5pm:I begin to plan some new wine lists as a result of my meetings today and am currently planning the format for a large corporate wine tasting event.

I usually begin by looking at what approach the company wishes to take and what they want to get out of their event.

6pm:Head home to have dinner with my wife, Noreen, and my three boys. After dinner, I help with the washing-up and then take an hour to relax and catch up on any sports, especially rugby and Everton.

8.30pm:A quick freshen-up and then I head to the BBC Radio Merseyside studios to be a panellist on Linda McDermott’s show, which I’ve done for two years.

12.15am:I get back into my car for the last time today and head straight home. The drive is usually very relaxed as the roads are virtually traffic-free at that time of night, which is great. I habitually make myself a hot drink, set my old-fashioned alarm clock, and get straight into bed.