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- Digital Wine Ventures (DW8) has broadened its horizons after signing its first craft spirit customer
- The company’s latest win involves Vodka Plus, an emerging craft spirit producer, appointing WINEDEPOT to distribute its products nationally
- WINEDEPOT is Digital Wines’ cloud-based wine platform that allows retailers to drop-ship orders to customers from multiple depots in Australia
- This deal is a testament to the company’s business model and allows it to enter a market valued at over $5 billion
- Following the positive news, DW8 is up 14.3 per cent and shares are trading for 0.8 cents
Digital Wine Ventures (DW8) has broadened its horizons after signing its first craft spirit customer.
The company’s latest win involves Vodka Plus, an emerging craft spirit producer, appointing WINEDEPOT to manage its national distribution.
Vodka Plus is an award-winning Australian-made and owned vodka that’s created with a unique blend of South Australian grapes, pure Tasmanian rainwater and added Australian botanicals.
The distilled vodka is gluten-free, sugar-free, lactose-free, made without chemicals and vegan.
This distribution deal will see WINEDEPOT, Digital Wine Ventures’ cloud-based specialised wine platform, enter the spirits market which is valued at around A$5.3 billion per annum.
Founder and CEO of DW8 Dean Taylor considers this deal beneficial for Vodka Plus in connecting to its customers.
“WINEDEPOT provides the opportunity for new and emerging brands like Vodka Plus to connect with and deliver to their customers in a fast and cost-effective manner. Previously many of their customers had to wait up to 2-weeks for deliveries, which just doesn’t cut it in 2019,” Dean said.
Vodka Plus’ range of premium vodka, soda mixers and ready-to-drink espresso martinis, will soon be available for delivery.
Importantly, this deal was signed at a strategic time, with the festive season right around the corner.
“We’re excited to partner with a forward-thinking tech company that’s helping craft spirits producers like ourselves to build and grow the direct-to-consumer market in Australia,” Vodka Plus Co-founder Marko Pavasovic said.
Digital Wines originally launched WINEDEPOT with wine at the forefront of the company’s focus, although Dean believes the platform will be well-suited to craft spirits, beers and ciders as well.
“This opens up a whole new market for us that is rapidly growing and not currently catered for,” Dean stated.
“It increases the potential addressable market of our platform immensely. We expect that many more craft spirit producers like Vodka Plus will follow their lead,” he added.
Additionally, the company also announced that since signing Casella on October 21, several more customers have started using WINEDEPOT’s integrated logistics, trading and order management platform.
Brands amongst the customers who’ve recently signed up include Josef Chromy, Primo Estate, Blackgate Estate, Hutton Vale Farm, Kismet Trading and Golding Wines.
Mr Taylor is pleased with the number of customers and is proud the company hasn’t shied away prior to Christmas as the rest in the industry can sometimes do.
“The number of customers who have decided to push ahead and change their network this side of Christmas a great testament to the strength of the proposition that we are providing the wine and beverage industry,” Dean concluded.
Following the positive announcement, Digital Wine Ventures is up 14.3 per cent and shares are trading for 0.8 cents each at 10:59 am AEDT.
