Online marketplace Kaddy, which connects Australian drinks producers with retailers and venues, has followed online retailer Boozebud into voluntary administration.

The announcement was made to the ASX on May 5 in a statement that said: “The Administrators are undertaking an urgent assessment of the Kaddy Group and will be looking to sell the business as a going concern or recapitalisation via a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA).

“The Administrators intend to work with management, employees, suppliers and customers to stabilise operations and seek the best outcome for the business.”

Kaddy Australia was acquired by Digital Wine Ventures in 2021, in a deal worth $34.25 million.

It was established in September 2019 by founders Mike Abbott and Rich Coombes (above) and has quickly grown its network of users to over 1500+ registered wholesale buyers and 400+ suppliers.

At the time of its acquisition of Kaddy, Digital Wine Ventures had 10,000 products across its platforms (including Winedepot) and serviced about 1850 buyers, including Cellarbrations, Solotel and Porter’s Liquor.

Despite the strong growth and adoption of the Kaddy platform, the company did not have its own logistics solution at the time and was reliant on third party fulfilment by its marketplace suppliers.

Then Digital Wine Ventures CEO Dean Taylor (above) said: “The combination of a world class B2B marketplace with a tech-enabled national logistics platform will create an unrivaled value proposition that’s relevant to every liquor licence holder in the country. Kaddy strongly complements our technology ecosystem and fast-tracks our ability to develop a stronghold in Australia’ $17 billion wholesale liquor market.

“Bringing the two businesses together also dramatically expands the platform’s addressable market, by making it a multi-beverage offering with applications not just here in Australia but across the entire global alcoholic beverage market.”

Dean Taylor stepped down as CEO of wine and beverage company DW8, the operator and owner of Kaddy, in October 2023. The company appointed Steve Voorma as its new CEO, with immediate effect.

DW8 described Voorma as “an internationally experienced executive with deep global consumer and digital media expertise working for blue chip brands”.

His most recent role prior to Kaddy was as CEO of the Active Display Group owned by WPP AUNZ. Between 2010 and 2018 Voorma led three separate divisions of Sony in Europe and Australia, developing expertise in logistics, service delivery and operational transformation across varying disciplines and geographies. 

Voorma undertook a strategic review of the business and as a result Kaddy repositioned its fulfilment division as a “pure play B2B Fulfilment services provider” by exiting all consumer fulfilment services.

The review saw the business operate two divisions; Kaddy Marketplace, a wholesale trading platform connecting trade buyers with beverage suppliers across Australia; and Kaddy Fulfilment, providing specialised B2B warehousing and logistics services to the Australian beverage industry.

A first statutory meeting of Kaddy’s creditors is expected to take place on Tuesday, 16 May 2023.