Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (Southern Glazer’s) said it made an equity investment in ReserveBar, the leading ecommerce platform for premium and luxury spirits in the U.S., connecting retailers with consumers. Terms weren’t disclosed.
Led by Southern Glazer’s Ventures, the deal expands Southern Glazer’s digital marketing offerings to suppliers by providing an additional three-tier-compliant platform for marketing their brands to consumers.
ReserveBar also announces its Spirited Change initiative, a commitment to take actions to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry by expanding access to its platform and providing marketing assistance for minority- and women-owned suppliers, with the goal of raising consumer awareness of those brands and making it easier for consumers to find and shop for those brands.
The Spirited Change initiative will be led by Jameel Spencer as Executive Director. Mr. Spencer is an award-winning veteran brand builder, who has played pivotal business roles for Shaquille O’Neal, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson over the last 25+ years.
“With ReserveBar, we are able to offer our supplier partners an exciting three-tier compliant, consumer-focused channel to market and sell their premium brands,” said David Chaplin, Chief Growth Officer, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. “We firmly believe that ReserveBar’s innovative industry leadership in providing suppliers a content-to-commerce, premium branded, and experiential platform makes them the ideal partner. This venture with ReserveBar is not only well aligned with our new Fine Wine and Artisanal Spirits strategy, but also with our commitment to expand representation of minority- and women-owned wine and spirits brands in the industry. We look forward to helping our diverse base of suppliers leverage this platform to build their brands and reach an important and growing category of consumer.”