Moët Hennessy has teamed up with Italian company Campari to launch a joint venture ecommerce business to sell premium wines and spirits across Europe.
The new business venture will see both companies invest in the pure-play digital retailer, which will be based on Campari’s existing ecommerce channel Tannico, which was launched by the Italian drinks producer. Tannico also owns a majority stake in the e-commerce platform Ventealapropriete.com, which sells premium wines and spirits in France. Together, the two platforms generated pro-forma aggregated sales of over €70 million in 2020.
Under the terms of the agreement, Campari is to transfer its stake in Tannico into the newly set up joint venture. Under the terms of the agreement, Campari is to sell half of the joint-venture’s equity capital to Moët Hennessy for 25.6 million euros ($30 million) in cash, the company said.
The combined business will be headed up by Marco Magnocavallo, CEO of Tannico, who remains a key minority shareholder in the business, along with his management team.
Philippe Schaus, President & CEO, Moët Hennessy says “The partnership represented a significant step forward in the company’s global ecommerce development strategy.”
“While e-commerce was already a growing channel for wines and spirits, the global pandemic has triggered a significant acceleration,” he noted.
Bob Kunze-Concewitz, CEO of Campari Group says “It would allow Tannico to grow and further strengthen its footprint and expertise in the online retailing of spirits & wines.”
Magnocavallo agreed, saying that with the backing of the two companies, the new business would have the “firepower” to consolidate the fragmented European e-commerce sector and “offer a qualitative, sizeable and integrated route to market option catering to the needs of all its wines and spirits suppliers”.
