Australia Post signs deal with Digital Wine Ventures

Digital Wine Ventures will partner with Australia Post to launch WINEDEPOT. A new trading and logistics platform for Australia’s multi-billion dollar wine industry.
Australia Post will provide warehouses, staffing, backend IT systems and infrastructure.
Catering for producers, distributors, importers and retailers of all sizes, the platform will allow orders to be fulfilled from inventory reserves held in depots servicing key markets – significantly reducing delivery times, freight costs and the opportunity for breakages.
Under the agreement, WINEDEPOT will establish its first four depots within Australia Post’s existing distribution centres located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
“Each depot will hold a very broad range of suppliers inventory on consignment, which can be accessed by a range of sales channels. As orders are processed through our platform they are routed to the depot closest to the delivery address where they are picked, packed (by bottle or case) and drop-shipped to the end customer. Depots are then automatically replenished on a bi-weekly basis from WINEDEPOT’s regional bulk storage facilities,” Dean Taylor, Digital Wine Ventures CEO said.
“Being located within Australia Post’s distribution centres will allow orders to flow directly into Fulfilio, Australia Post’s fulfilment system, avoiding the typical need for collection, transfer and sortation. This further reduces handling, costs and delivery times,” he continued.
“Australia Post is always looking for ways to support Australian businesses, particularly those in regional areas where most wineries are located. As wine is heavy, bulky and fragile, shipping one case at a time from regional areas to consumers in major cities drives higher costs and increases risk of damage to consumer product. WINEDEPOT’s model will address many of these limitations and provide a much improved overall customer experience,” Paul Hersbach, Head of Growth Products at Australia Post said.
WINEDEPOT expects it will leverage the learnings from the Australia Post partnership to establish a working model that they can use in other countries.