Exponential growth for Wine Depot

by Brydie AllenFebruary 14, 2022

In the 2022 National Liquor News Industry Leaders Forum, Dean Taylor, CEO and Founder of Wine Depot, detailed the incredible growth and expansion of the business in the past 12 months.

Wine Depot has experienced exponential growth across its sales, order management, payments, and logistics management platform over the past 12 months.

Over the last two years, the business has grown to the point where it is now one of the country’s largest specialist beverage logistics providers, operating warehouses in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and a national distribution centre in Albury-Wodonga.

In 2021, the number of buyers using the platform increased by 880 per cent; the volume of cases shipped increased by 1,100 per cent and operating revenue grew by a staggering 1,250 per cent. The number of staff directly employed also grew significantly from
around 30 to 170.

The business also successfully launched three new sales channels – Market, Direct, and Insider – providing suppliers with new avenues to make brands and products available to trade and consumers.

In early 2022, Wine Depot will be launching a social media platform for the broader liquor industry, called Community. It will allow members to keep abreast of news around brands, products, venues, and trends. Community will be a new home for Australian wine and drinks industry discussions.

Members will also have access to Insider (a staff drinks program for the industry), where they can purchase direct from producers at highly competitive prices.

Dean Taylor, Founder and CEO of Wine Depot, told National Liquor News that managing the immense growth has been a challenge, but a new warehouse and delivery fleet has helped to streamline processes.

“We acquired Parton Wine Distribution and launched a new controlled site in Adelaide which collectively increased our warehouse footprint by almost 30,000sqm. [And] to avoid the ever-increasing congestion experienced across Australia’s logistics network, we launched our own dedicated delivery fleet servicing the major capitals,” he said.

This allowed Wine Depot to maintain an average of 99.5 per cent deliveries arriving in full and on time in metro areas.

Taylor added: “Our expanded national footprint, which includes temperature controlled, cold chain and bonded storage, provides us with the ability to service suppliers of any scale.

“Over the next 12 months, our focus will be to take advantage of this infrastructure and our cost-effective routes to market to start onboarding much larger brands looking for an end-to-end national omnichannel solution.”

The acquisition of Kaddy

In late 2021, Wine Depot strengthened its position at the forefront of the digital alcoholic beverages market with the acquisition of Kaddy. The merger of the two businesses forms Australia’s largest alcohol-focused cloud-based logistics and marketplace platform.

Taylor says the core focus in 2022 will be integrating Kaddy into Wine Depot’s technology and logistics platform.

“Our vision is to rapidly grow this business into a $1 billion gross merchandise sales wholesale liquor marketplace and, in the process, provide the rapidly growing number of users on both sides of the marketplace a simpler, easier, and more profitable way to operate their businesses,” he said.

Article written by Deb Jackson.

Read more from the 2022 National Liquor News Leaders Forum here.