Online wine business The Wine Collective has completed the acquisition of the residual assets of The Wine Society.
The Wine Collective is a union of five wine retailers into a single consumer-centric business. These brands include The Wine Society, Cracka Wines, My Wine Guy, Winegrowers Direct and From The Producer.
The Wine Society, established in 1947 as Australia’s first wine club, was placed into administration by its directors on July 20, 2020.
The day-to-day operations of The Wine Society had previously been outsourced to The Wine Collective since 2016, when The Wine Society first came close to collapse.
At that time, The Wine Collective purchased all stock and inventory from The Wine Society and engaged all its employees, with a contract to manage wine sales to The Wine Society’s members.
In August, CEO Lloyd Heinrich (above) said everything possible had been done to attract new members to the co-op.
“We spent a huge amount of money trying,” he said. “It became increasingly clear that getting people to join this old Society was not going to be possible.”
Following the administrator’s appointment in July, The Wine Collective has negotiated the purchase the remaining assets of The Wine Society, comprising the membership database, intellectual property, licences and residual business assets.
As part of the acquisition of the membership database, The Wine Society’s current members will be incorporated into The Wine Collective and will continue to receive ongoing special offers and loyalty status.
