WineDepot signs foundation client, Australia’s largest family-owned winery

Tech newcomer Digital Wine Ventures (ASX: DW8) has hit the ground running with the signing of Casella Family Brands, Australia largest family-owned winery, as a foundation client for their one-stop-shop WineDepot platform. 

Launched in September 2019, WineDepot is a B2B cloud-based platform which aims to connect wine producers, distributors, importers and retailers enabling producers a wider distribution network, and a greater product range for retailers. 

Crushing between 160,000 to 200,000 tonnes of fruit annually, Casella Family Brands is the second largest producer in Australia with a product portfolio including well-known brands Yellow Tail and Peter Lehmann amongst many others. 

“Casella’s Yenda winery site covers a working area of 95 acres and can store over 260 million litres of wine. At the other end of the spectrum, we also work with micro producers who hand make just a few hundred cases of wine per year,” said Digital Wines CEO, Dean Taylor. 

“What this shows is that our platform caters for wine businesses of almost any scale. Having that degree of product market fit at this stage in our business cycle is very exciting.” 

The material impact of the partnership between Digital Wines and Casella Family Brands has not been disclosed however, further business signups to the WineDepot platforms should see greater revenue from fulfillment, storage and SaaS fees which comprise the platforms main revenue streams. 

Beyond Casella Family Brands, WineDepot has also signed on four smaller wineries. 

“We always knew that launching just prior to Christmas would have its challenges. For most of those in the industry, the majority of profits are generated in the spring quarter, so they tend to shy away from making operational changes during this period,” said Taylor. 

The minimum term of each agreement for exposure via the WineDepot platform is 3 months.