Vintage Wine Estates said it was acquiring substantially all the assets of Vinesse for $14 million, with a $2.5 million earnout over three years. Vinesse has annual revenue of about $20 million.
Vinesse LLC is a direct-to-consumer platform company specializing in wine clubs with over 60,000 members. Founded in 1993, Vinesse has developed a long-time following by offering interesting boutique wines to a broader audience and making wine accessible and easy to love.
Pat Roney, CEO, said Vinage is “rapidly expanding our DTC capabilities, and Vinesse is an excellent addition to the platform. Vinesse currently outsources virtually all of their operations. We believe we can create significant cost synergies by bringing wine making and distribution in house and marketing VWE’s brand portfolio through their channels. We also see significant potential opportunities for revenue expansion as we blend the talent of Vinesse’s traditional marketing skills with our digital capabilities, particularly through cross-selling into Vinesse’s channel and upselling our luxury brands to their club members.”
He continued, “We are acquiring the business for approximately 12x Vinesse’s current EBITDA and expect to lower that multiple to less than 5x over the first 12 months driven principally by cost synergies. As we continue to execute on our strategy, we expect that this will be the first of several acquisitions we intend to make during FY2022 that complements our planned organic growth.”