On demand alcohol delivery service Tipple is set to expand nationally after carving out a strong following in Victoria.
Tipple was founded by brothers Ryan and Shane Barrington in 2015, and is currently operating in nine zones in Melbourne, and now the startup is scaling up.
The founders have 41 zones earmarked around the country as potential hot spots, and seven zones have already been negotiated in Sydney, due to open early next month, with many more to open in the coming months.
The pair originally owned bottle shops within the distribution network, but now partner with them, just as UberEats, Deliveroo and Menulog partner with restaurants.
Tipple has its own online marketplace, tech platform and on-demand delivery network, and can potentially plug into hundreds of retailers to deliver alcohol in less than 30 minutes.
Tipple says it has sold 16,156 litres of wine within two 5km zones in the Melbourne suburbs of St Kilda and Fitzroy alone over the past six months, and wine accounts for around a third of its sales.
In both zones, Furphy was the top selling beer brand, with local beer brands, including Pure Blonde, Coopers Pale Ale and Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, making up the majority of the top 10 sellers .
Out of the spirits category, vodka was the clear leader with 41 per cent of sales, followed by whisky at 28 per cent, and gin at 8 per cent.
Exploding channel
The online channel for alcohol sales is set to explode according to Rabobank, which predicts huge potential for the category.
According to its new report, off-premise alcohol sales had a five-year CAGR of 1.44 per cent in the US, while over the same period, sales from winery websites quadrupled, and on-demand delivery apps processed $US100 million in annual sales in 2017.
The researcher notes, however, that while the growing power of online sales cannot be ignored by brands, there are at least a dozen online channels in the US, and each channel operates differently.
New wine app
Meanwhile, a new wine distribution app called ootra is set to launch in Australia in April, featuring a diverse portfolio of emerging and unique brands.
ootra says the app allows wine producers to sell to restaurants and wine merchants, bypassing the traditional sales team and putting winemaker and customer directly in contact.
“Brands represented by ootra have been selected based on their ability to provide balance to the overall portfolio. This is evaluated on winemaking approach, style, region, taste, and branding,” ootra director Richard van Ruth says.
A number of winemakers have already signed up to the new platform, including Catlin Wines, Dabblebrook, Lady & the Hawk, LS Merchants, The Stoke Wines, and Gala Estate.
