I think the green clashes with the burgundy,” says Simon Baile, scratching his head, looking up at the newly painted shopfront, wondering whether to tweak the new logo. We are standing outside a branch of Oddbins in Wandsworth, South London.

Fans of Oddbins — and there were quite a few before it lost its way — are unlikely to be put off by the odd clash of colour. Known for sourcing off-beat and eclectic wines from small producers, Oddbins was seen as one of the world’s most dynamic wine retailers and a company that clearly supported the idea that wines were made by individuals. A colour clash here or there fits in with this spirit of individualism.

The revamp of the store is also a sign of changing times at the wine retailer. Mr Baile bought the ailing chain almost a year ago from Castel Frères, the French company. He said then — pre-recession — that he would have no problem making a profit in the first year. So how is it looking? “Actually pretty good — we won’t be far off target,” he grins. He has a lot to smile about. Most in the wine trade agree that if anyone can turn the retailer’s fortunes around, he can.

For Mr Baile, the purchase was a homecoming of sorts. Nick Baile, his father, once owned Oddbins and Simon grew up playing in the cellars at the Holborn branch and serving behind the counter in the Upper Street store in Islington. His father, now 77, bought the chain off Ahmed Pochee, who started the business in 1963 delivering bin-ends and oddments of wine (hence the name of the company) to restaurants and clubs in the West End of London.

Nick Baile added more shops and increased the range of wines on offer. He introduced Britain to the wines of Portugal and the South of France and also gave us the wooden floors and wacky blackboards for which Oddbins is known.

Then, in the 1980s, Seagram bought Oddbins, taking it to 100 stores. It won Wine Merchant of the Year in 1988 at the International Wine Challenge, the first of 12 such awards. In 2002, Castel Frères, one of France’s biggest wine producers, bought Oddbins for a rumoured £57 million in an attempt to crack the UK market. It struggled — reporting a pre-tax loss of £8.69 million on a turnover of £121.4 million in 2006.

In stepped Simon Baile, Henry Young, his business partner and brother-in-law — with the help of a consortium of private backers — in 2008. Mr Baile and Mr Young were running Ex Cellar, a wine retailer that focused (like Oddbins) on smaller producers scattered all over the globe.

Mr Baile won’t say how much they bought Oddbins for, but the deal was clearly not done for sentimental reasons. He has several years’ experience in the wine trade. Ex Cellar inherited 158 shops in the Oddbins purchase (44 in London) and shut 28 poor performers already earmarked for closure by Castel Frères. This stanched any losses. Mr Baile, who will be announcing figures soon, predicts a turnover of £75million for this year.

Since the new owners came on board, sales have risen 10 per cent. This is in part because of the Christmas champagne push, which introduced smaller growers at lower prices. It has also maintained its enviable average spend per bottle, at £7.60, with margins at about 33 per cent.

The new management has also revamped the wine range. He has got rid of 1,500 of Oddbin’s 2,000 lines and added 350 new lines, many of which have never been sold in the UK before. There will be 500 new lines by the end of the year — fast moving by anyone’s standards. Some of his finds for Ex Cellar — which he still operates — have made it on to the Oddbins list.

His team of three buyers have been on the hunt for quirky, interesting wines, sourcing new growers. The last few months have been spent reworking the much-maligned (by the UK wine press anyway) French range, with some good value new selections from Quincy and Menetou-Salon, Gaillac and Madiran and others from classic areas such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. “In fact, we’ve gone through every French region,” he says.

They have also found 38 new Italian wines and added a fair few New Zealand wines to the range. Wines from Australia and newcomers from Spain and Portugal are also expected.

In keeping with the Oddbins spirit of adventure, he promises wines from little-known wine regions of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. “Though we’ve yet to hit South Africa, and there’s a lot of work to be done yet in the US,” he admits. “We do want to introduce new things but there’s no point in offering what everybody else has, and we’re not going back to the crazy days when anything goes. It’s not right to go back.”

His latest favourite find is Château d’Orschwihr from a producer in Alsace, a first-timer in the UK that needed considerable persuasion that the Brits were ready for its Riesling. We must be, because sales are good.

But isn’t sourcing much of your wine from smaller producers a bureaucratic nightmare? “It’s not about stocking the most fashionable or most famous wines. What we are trying to do is find smaller, family-owned wine producers. We are not aiming to tick all the boxes — must have this and that. It has developed a momentum of its own accord and it does work — people are attracted by what we are trying to achieve.”

For Oddbins fans, who snapped up the blackboard specials and personal recommendations from the enthusiastic, informed staff and loved the Ralph Steadman illustrated wine list, this ethos must sound familiar. They can now expect a return to those values and sales techniques, albeit with a different cartoonist, Mr Baile said. Wine still accounts for 75 per cent of stock, but 16 per cent is reserved for the spirit category, where whisky plays a big part. Beer accounts for just 9 per cent of Oddbins stock. There will, Mr Baile promises, be even more wine tastings.

One could argue that Mr Baile’s biggest achievement to date is the huge dose of passion he has injected into the business. It is already rubbing off on the 500 shop staff who are fired up about its new range. “And if they are getting it, then so are our customers,” says Mr Baile.

This passion extends to the revamp of the stores. Mr Baile is starting with Wandsworth, the nearest to the Wimbledon headquarters. Here the ceiling is painted black, the walls are a custard yellow Farrow & Ball, there are old wine barrel tasting stations, photographs of gnarled vines and even more gnarled producers, and a seated area to peruse the latest wine magazines. “We chose this store to tinker with first because it was the most knackered,” he confides, showing off the new oak floorboards and streamlined shelving. “We want to bring back the colour, bring back personality — and inject some humour,” he says.

What will the next year hold — any new openings? “No immediate grand plans. There’s not really a business model for Oddbins — it’s hard to write it down. The key thing is to get things right — we’ve got to get the business ticking first, there’s such huge potential. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I think we’ve already made a difference — people are beginning to come back. Our aim is to offer a pleasurable and interesting shopping experience with service and product at the very heart of what we do,” he says.

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