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Vinomofo reshuffles on way to ASX

Simon Evans
Simon EvansSenior reporter

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Justin Dry, the long-time chief executive of online wine retailer Vinomofo, is stepping down from the position as the company heads towards a potential listing on the ASX, buoyed by the structural shift to e-commerce.

Mr Dry, one of the co-founders who set up the business in 2011 and who owns a 20 per cent stake in the company, said the time was right to hand over the day-to-day running. The existing chairman of Vinomofo, Paul Edginton, will become chief executive of the company, which has about 77,000 active customers.

“The business is in a place that perfectly suits what we’re doing,” Mr Dry said.

Vinomofo CEO Justin Dry is stepping aside, but will stay with the company as it beefs up its corporate governance ahead of a likely listing on the ASX.  

Mr Dry will remain with the company in the newly created position of chief entrepreneur, driving the operations into new areas and ensuring the innovation in the business – with its original ethos of taking the stuffiness out of wine buying – remains.

“It’s no bow ties and no bullshit,” he said.

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Mr Edginton, who has been chief executive for 18 years of non-government, not-for-profit community service organisation SYC Limited, said an ASX listing was a serious option.

“I think a public listing is one of the options available to us,” Mr Edginton said.

Vinomofo has also bolstered its corporate governance with the appointment of two new independent directors, Giselle Collins and Patrick Tapper.

Mr Tapper, a former chief executive of national broadband company Internode, will become chairman of Vinomofo. Ms Collins is currently a director of Hotel Property Investments, an ASX 300 property investment trust owning 45 pubs.

Mr Edginton said Vinomofo would continue to use Australia Post for its deliveries. He said the delivery service organisation had been able to step up after an extraordinary rise in demand across all forms of online retailing during the pandemic.

“Australia Post has got its act together for a few months now,” he said.

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He said Vinomofo had generated double-digit revenue growth in the past year and was making bottomline profits.

Mr Dry said China’s ban on Australian wine, which shut off an annual export market of almost $1.3 billion, was starting to cause dislocations in the local market, with Vinomofo being offered extra high-end premium products to sell to its customer base.

“We’re starting to see it come through,” Mr Dry said.

He said Vinomofo’s customer base was extremely loyal, with a strong repeat purchase rate. A flood of new customers had also come on board during the pandemic as the convenience of e-commerce was elevated in people’s minds. “You’ve got a channel change happening,” he said.

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Mr Dry said it wasn’t just the younger demographic who were attracted to Vinomofo’s offerings, which were carefully “curated” to appeal to drinkers looking for interesting, high-quality wines.

“It’s an attitude not an age,” Mr Dry said.

He said there had been a permanent structural shift caused by the pandemic which would benefit all well-run e-commerce operations, with advances brought forward rapidly.

“There were a couple of years in a matter of months,” Mr Dry said.

Simon Evans writes on business specialising in retail, manufacturing, beverages, mining and M&A. He is based in Adelaide. Connect with Simon on Twitter. Email Simon at simon.evans@afr.com

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