Australian wine e-retailer Vinomofo is fast becoming a household name

Vinomofo is reportedly gearing up for an IPO before the year’s end, with the company now valued at more than $300m.

Australian wine e-retailer Vinomofo is fast becoming a household name — like tech companies Google or Netflix — and chief executive Justin Dry says it’s all down to the company’s attitude.

Speaking ahead of The Australian’s E-Commerce Summit next week, Dry says his boozy brand has resonated because of its three values: good wine only, epic deals, and happiness guaranteed.

Vinomofo is reportedly gearing up for an IPO before the year’s end, with the company now valued at more than $300m. The platform now has about 70,000 customers, most of whom are repeat buyers.

“I think the reason Vinomofo has resonated with so many winelovers is, firstly, it’s an attitude, not an age. We brought people together, a community with a shared belief that you can be super passionate about wine but you don’t need bring the bow ties and BS,” Dry says.

“Our range is highly curated and this focus is very deliberate. We don’t want to offer every wine, because: one, not every wine is good; and two: our focus, when combined with the size of our audience, means that we have the buying power to offer better value than anyone else in the market.

“This is much more appealing to true wine lovers than the typical broad range offer with little to no curation, low volume and hence high prices.

“And finally, it’s our relentless focus on customer happiness.”

Dry says every Vinomofo customer, or “mofo”, has access to their own personal wine broker to take them on an adventure to “open up their wine world”.

“Our mofos love it,” he says. “We’ve invested heavily in our tech, which enables us to deliver a very personalised experience. And we hold regular in person events and have turned our warehouse click and collect into a cellar door like experience.”

The company’s most recent market, Singapore, has grown rapidly and profitably over the last few years, and the executive says its success has given Vinomofo a tremendous amount of confidence going forward. He says once the world has got through COVID-19 the executive team will start exploring more overseas opportunities.

COVID-19 has been a boon for Vinomofo, with new customer numbers averaging growth of more than 100 per cent year-on-year from March through to the end of September, while revenue over the same period has averaged over 50 per cent growth year-on-year.

“Like so many other online businesses, we’ve seen a huge amount of growth through this period as customers shifted channels to online. We saw a massive jump in new customers and frequency of purchase increased and this has continued as the market has opened up in most of Australia,” he says.

“However one thing that did surprise me is the increase in average bottle price over the period. I was expecting to see a surge in sales but not for our average bottle price go up.

“COVID-19 has changed the landscape forever, and quickly, and that has created a whole lot of new opportunities for those looking.”