A pair of beverage alcohol e-commerce platforms are merging. E-commerce luxury spirits platform ReserveBar announced today that it will acquire Minibar Delivery, a marketplace that offers on-demand delivery of beer, wine and spirits.
The transaction is expected to close this week. The companies declined to disclose a sale price.
ReserveBar’s planned acquisition of MiniBar Delivery — which partners with more than 2,800 retailers nationwide, including 7-Eleven, to facilitate on-demand deliveries — advances the former’s plans to create a retail fulfillment network, as well as introduce on-demand delivery capabilities.
The combined entity will cover more than 3,000 retailers by the end of 2021, with the goal of growing to more than 5,000 retailers in 2022. The move is expected to speed up ReserveBar’s goal of offering 30-minute, one-hour, same-day and next-day delivery in more than 2,000 cities and offer shipping in 44 states, the company said.
“This acquisition is born out of synergies generated by the complementary e-commerce segments we serve,” Lindsay Held, ReserveBar CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “ReserveBar primarily focuses on premium and luxury spirits, utilizing ground shipping fulfillment, while Minibar Delivery has focused on meeting the customer’s everyday needs for wine, spirits, beer, and ready-to-drink cocktails, with on-demand delivery. Together, we can provide our clients with the best purchasing experience in the market.”
“The Minibar Delivery acquisition supports our strategic growth across other fronts, including retail footprint expansion, local delivery, consumer data, and business intelligence, and, importantly, talent,” Derek Correia, ReserveBar president, added. “They have fantastic people, and we’re excited to have them as part of the ReserveBar family.”
Held told BevNET that the deal will allow the company to expand its customer base by meeting “every consumer usage occasion.” Founded in 2013, ReserveBar specializes in rare, luxury and ultra-premium wine and spirits (including spirits that can retail for five-figures per bottle) that aims to be a “curated branded experience,” Held said. Meanwhile, Minibar is tailored towards everyday use and also offers categories such as beer, mixers and snacks.
Following the transaction Minibar Delivery co-founder Lindsey Andrews will continue on as CEO of Minibar and will report to Held, who will take on the title of executive chairman of Minibar.
Held said Minibar will continue to operate as a separate platform but operations will be integrated into ReserveBar’s business. The company, he added, sees “cost synergies” by combining the two businesses on the back end and in particular Minibar will help to increase ReserveBar’s velocities through both a larger slate of affordable products and its optimized delivery services which provide “everything from 30 minute deliveries to ground shipping.”
Held added that the merger will give ReserveBar a large arsenal of services and data for its B2B supplier partners.
“What has been created is the first company that can offer our supplier partners the most comprehensive suite of marketing tactics, technology implementations, e-commerce levers and, of course, data and consumer behavior and business intelligence,” Held said.
Moving forward, Held said ReserveBar will continue to seek out acquisition targets and grow in “an opportunistic manner” by focusing on its position as both a CPG and a technology company. He also hinted that ReserveBar may explore an IPO in the future, but said “only time will tell” whether or not it will go public.
“The fact is that ReserveBar is a multi-faceted platform,” he said. “On one hand we’re spirits e-commerce for premium, luxury, and now everyday spirits. But we’re also very much a performance marketing company. We’re a data company, we’re a technology company. So there are other category segments in the alcohol industry — other alcohol categories. So, we have a lot of optionality both in who we team up with in strategic alliances, but also who we may look to acquire.”