One of the largest online drinks retailers has been sold back to its original owner and founder, six years after the business was first sold.
ZX Ventures initially acquired Atom Group in April 2018 for an undisclosed sum. Atom Group is the parent company behind the Master of Malt website, as well as bottler and producer Atom Labs and craft drinks distributor Maverick Drinks.
Master of Malt was set up by Justin Petszaft in 1999 and quickly grew to become one of the premier names in online whisky retail. The website now specialises in a number of spirits including gin, rum and tequila.
When Atom Group was initially sold, it was hoped that working with ZX Ventures - the growth and innovation arm of drinks company and brewing firm AB InBev - would help grow the brand’s global operations, particularly with regards to their e-commerce platform.
As Petszaft explains, “in April 2018, we decided that the best way forward to grow the business would be to find a new owner… We went into the AB InBev relationship with a lot of excitement and energy, and a lot of hope about what could be accomplished together; we felt they were as ambitious and excited by how technology could transform the drinks industry as we were.”
However, now Atom Group has been resold to it original owner, returning the business to its fully independent roots. Despite the promising beginning, according to Petszaft it “eventually became clear that Atom was still too early in its life cycle to fit well within AB InBev and make the most of the resources available.”
He continued by adding that the Atom Group are “much more like a startup than an established mature business with stable processes that can be easily scaled.”
AB InBev approached Petszaft earlier this year with the proposition to purchase the business. Petszaft was “over the moon” with the proposal and work began on a transition plan. Even though he remained employed by the company under AB InBev’s stewardship of the group, he had never previously considered the possibility of reclaiming control of the company he founded.
There’s certainly no acrimony as a result of the split, with Petszaft thanking AB InBev for their support and commenting on their “unparalleled professionalism and decency.”
So what’s next for Master of Malt and the rest of the Atom Group portfolio of businesses? Petszaft has said the goal is for the newly independent company to go forward as a “customer-centric business” that can act as a service provider for the wider spirits industry.
He adds “our purpose is to create unexpected customer delight. That’s what the business is about. And we want to do that while building a business that we want to be customers of and that we’re proud of.”
In terms of developing the Atom Group’s business, they currently plan to utilise the Master of Malt platform to increase the profile of their own brands - that includes their ‘& Whiskies’ range, Drinks by the Dram spirits sampling service, and Bathtub gin -, as well as offering a platform for other spirits producers to grow.
Petszaft explains “we want to open up our infrastructure so people can use us to bootstrap their businesses and outsource work to us… We want to be like the back end for the whole spirits industry. So everything from marketing partnerships to stockholding, fulfilment, customer service.”
As arguably one of the most trusted online drinks specialists, Atom Group are uniquely positioned to achieve their goals.