Following WineDepot’s acquisition of Kaddy in October last year, parent company ASX-listed DW8 says all operations will now rebrand as Kaddy.
The deal saw the business become Australia’s largest alcohol-focused, cloud-based logistics and marketplace platform, with more than 1900 buyers across the on- and off-premises segments, and around 1000 suppliers of alcoholic beverages accounting for more than 10,000 products.
Kaddy and WineDepot both launched in 2019, rising to prominence in their respective markets. While WineDepot developed an integrated trading, logistics and payment management technology platform, operating for the wine industry, Kaddy was following a similar trajectory for the craft beer, spirits, cider, and seltzer sectors.
In the last two years, DW8 also acquired Parton Wine Distribution and Wine Delivery Australia. Kaddy and DW8 CEO Dean Taylor said the growth allowed the company to have an unrivalled offering in Australia’s $37.2 billion liquor market.
“It will also enable us to rapidly scale into global markets in the future,” Taylor said.
Part of the restructure will be a social networking platform, Kaddy Community, for industry professionals to connect and share insights, opinions, reviews and news.
WineDepot Market will be retired, with buyers and suppliers migrated to Kaddy Marketplace by the end of April.
WineDepot’s suite of fulfilment solutions, including the recently acquired Parton Wine Distribution, will be rebranded and will operate as Kaddy Fulfilment, servicing both trade and consumer markets.
The company is also updating and integrating its systems to bring all its suppliers into one centralised platform, Kaddy Connect, for a more efficient fulfilment process, Taylor said.
“We’re confident that through deeper technical integrations, we can increase efficiency and speed with our dedicated delivery fleet and avoid network congestion, especially during peak seasons,” he said.
For the co-founder of Kaddy Rich Coombes, the rebrand is another step towards its goal to be a best-in-class wholesale marketplace.
“Integrating our B2B marketplace into a national end-to-end fulfilment network will allow us to provide an even better experience for the wholesale beverage industry. There is simply no platform like it in Australia or overseas,” Coombes said.
