It’s a busy week for Digital Wine Ventures, which has announced the launch of the Wine Depot Market direct-to-trade platform in Melbourne and the acquisition of Parton Wine Group.

Wine Depot CEO Dean Taylor said customers are responding positively to the platform’s expansion.

“The evolution of the wine distribution model in Australia is long overdue,” he said. “Technology has brought vast changes in the way we produce wine and sell to consumers, but in the middle, supply chains and wholesaling are still plagued by inefficiency.”

The direct-to-wholesale marketplace allows suppliers to list their products for sale on consumer marketplaces such as Amazon, Ebay and Vivino and provides a logistics solution that allows suppliers to fulfil orders from various depots, together with same and next-day delivery to most capital cities.

“The chance to move more of their wine purchasing to a single platform, with a single invoice and single credit account, has been highly attractive to venues and retailers,” said Taylor.

“Customers are trialing the platform and finding a large range of products they already purchase, all in one place, along with a selection of new and interesting wines from some of Australia’s top producers.

“We identified the need for a comprehensive direct-to-trade platform in the local wine market years ago, and launching in our second major city shows we’re closing in on that goal.”

Wine Depot set another record in June, shipping a total of 27,087 cases, up 344% on the volume shipped during same month last year (monthly YoY). This was generated on the back of 11,602 orders, equating to a record average of 2.33 cases shipped per order as the contribution of cases shipped to trade buyers from its Market platform started to influence overall metrics.

Wine Depot acquires Parton Wine Distribution

The Parton deal will see Digital Wine Ventures gain the third-party logistics provider with 23,000 square metres of warehouse space and its fleet of 30 medium and light trucks and vans.

Parton is based in Perth and has operations in NSW and Victoria. The warehousing will augment WineDepot’s directly controlled 10,000 pallet national distribution centre in Albury/Wodonga, 3000 pallet depot in Adelaide and a  network of third party warehousing and freight providers that it uses to service Brisbane,  Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. 

As part of the acquisition, Parton founder, Richard Raddon will join the WineDepot’s senior executive team as general manager of the logistics division, assisting in the post-merger integration of his business.

Raddon has almost four decades of experience within the wine warehousing and logistics sector, including 21 years as a warehouse and distribution manager for Southcorp Wines, now Treasury Wine Estates. His son David, who has 25 years of logistics and operational experience, will also join as national operations manager.

“We are really excited to work with Richard and become the custodians of the business that he and his son David have spent many years building,” Taylor said.

“Their track records are impressive, and their extensive experience within the wine industry stacked together with almost 100 knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated staff provides a significant boost to our operational capability.” 

Taylor added that having their own dedicated fleet of delivery vans and drivers would enhance the offering for trade buyers using Wine Depot’s recently launched direct-to-trade online marketplace.

“Having direct control over our warehouses, with the ability to offer temperature controlled, cold chain and bonded storage will also help us to acquire major accounts which have eluded us to date,” he said.

“Importantly, moving to a closed loop network provides the physical foundations required to underpin the other products we offer through our technology platform.

“Along with an immediate lift in key metrics, the acquisition provides us with another 225 customers that can be leveraged to drive further growth across our platform.”

“The scale of the merged operation, overlaid with our investment in state-of-the-art technology, will undoubtedly help position WineDepot as the market leading supply chain solution, focused on supporting the e-commerce shift in the wine industry.

“For all of these reasons I am confident that this acquisition will accelerate our market penetration in Australia and generate a lot of additional value for both customers and shareholders alike.”