Articles published under the media release byline are news produced by the relevant business and remain unedited by Brews News. This media release was circulated by Kaddy.

Kaddy, the tech enabled marketplace that simplifies wholesale business between alcohol suppliers and their trade customers, is expanding to Victoria late this month. After launching in 2019 and recently completing it’s $3.5m funding round to fuel its growth, the company says that Victorian liquor retailers and operators now, more than ever, need help adapting their operations to the current economic climate.

The Kaddy platform facilitates wholesale transactions with over 150 suppliers across beer, cider, wine and spirits and has seen an uptake of over 300 venues in NSW alone. The COVID period has made it’s platform even more relevant as venues look to increase efficiencies and simplify the way they deal with tens, sometimes hundreds of different suppliers. For suppliers, more distribution opportunities, streamlined ordering, as well as guaranteed payment upfront for wholesale transactions are among the reasons why suppliers are jumping on in droves.

“We’ve been going hammer & tong on the tech development over the last few months and the question keeps being asked, when are you coming to Melbourne?” says Jock Kinross, Kaddy’s Head of Sales.

“We’re proud to have so many incredible producers on the Kaddy platform, including several very strong Victorian craft beer brands including Hop Nation, Two Birds, Hawkers, Brick Lane, Stomping Ground and Two Bays.”

Hop Nation’s National Sales & Export Manager, Michael Chaffe, says the platform has helped his trade customers simplify their ordering experience. “Kaddy is a convenient and easy to use platform that gives customers access to a fantastic range of Australian made products, and allows them to streamline their ordering from Hop Nation with their orders from other suppliers”.

Aside from craft beer, Kaddy’s spirits, wine and cider supplier partners have grown on the back of strong retailer demand. “Our retailers in NSW have been asking us for more and more suppliers, particularly in craft spirits and wine, so broadening the platform into those segments has been a major focus over the last 2 months”.

The Kaddy model is unique, in that the platform combines the best of both worlds of the direct model and a traditional wholesaler model, meaning retailers can order directly from a multitude of brands via the platform and have their individual trading terms reflected in a one stop shop.

Kinross adds, “Our goal is to represent the best offering in terms of quality, diversity and demand – we’re working very closely with retailers to make their wholesale experience simpler whilst still facilitating direct business with thousands of high quality products.”

In these turbulent times, Kaddy suggests that the market landscape presents a greater opportunity than threat, as a lot of operators are looking closely at their trade, their product mix and overall way of doing business, paying close attention to cost reduction and margin improvements.

“We’re very mindful that many on-premise venues are in a tricky spot with the continuing uncertainties around trading restrictions. We’re here in full support of those venues and want to help them reduce admin time and costs of doing business. We also want to support independent retail and work closely with our retail partners to help evolve the way they trade with the thousands of alcohol suppliers on the market”.

Kaddy says it will have a dedicated Victorian team in place to support its endeavours there. For any supplier or retailer enquiries, contact Jock Kinross (jock@kaddy.com.au) or on 0448 010 304.