Asahi sells online retailer BoozeBud back to founders
Australia | Japan’s Asahi, which bought the country’s leading brewer Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) from AB-InBev in 2020, has sold its leading online alcohol retailer BoozeBud back to the business’ founders.
It was AB-InBev’s unit ZX Ventures, which had bought BoozeBud in August 2018, to develop CUB’s e-commerce strategy. It included, among others, a trial to sell beer via eBay. All these activities must have riled retailers no end.
After a review, though, Asahi decided to return to its core business, which means selling its products through its retail customers, and BoozeBud became surplus to requirements.
However, insiders suspect that the big alcohol retailers, which all have their e-commerce sites, may have twisted Asahi’s arm. Besides, something akin happened before. The then owner of CUB, the Foster’s Group, sold its online wine club Cellarmaster in 2007 because the retailers had taken objection to Foster’s poaching in their territory.
Aussies love online shopping
BoozeBud was founded in 2014 by Alex Gale, Andy Williamson and Mark Woollcott. The founders took back control in December 2020. Since CUB purchased BoozeBud, the site has grown to over 250,000 customers and revenue has grown more than 500 percent, Asahi’s statement says.
BoozeBud’s Founder Andy Williamson said: “We’re delighted to own BoozeBud once again. Over the past two and a half years the business has grown more than six times and is now the leading pureplay online alcohol retailer in the country.”
“We always ran the business under CUB ownership so nothing will change for our suppliers and customers who are now preferring to shop online more than ever before.”
