This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
AB InBev sells Master of Malt
The ZX Ventures arm of AB InBev has sold Master of Malt, Atom Brands and Maverick Drinks back to their founder, six years after acquiring the businesses.
ZX Ventures, the growth and innovation unit of AB InBev, purchased parent company Atom Group for an undisclosed sum in April 2018.
At the time of the original deal, Atom Group, based in Kent, UK, said the purchase would enable the business to scale up its global operations and “supercharge” its e-commerce platform.
However, all of Atom’s businesses have now been sold back to founder Justin Petszaft, marking its return to a “fully independent and 100% founder-owned business”.
“In April 2018, we decided that the best way forward to grow the business would be to find a new owner,” he explained.
“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.”
Atom Group comprises four business units: online retailer Master of Malt; drinks wholesaler Master of Malt Trade; spirits producer Atom Brands; and craft spirits distributor Maverick Drinks.
Petszaft built the Master of Malt website in 1999, which has since become the “number one online whisky retailer in the world”.
He added: “We can now focus on growing a beautiful ecosystem comprising every link in the premium spirits value chain, which is also open to the rest of the industry as a platform and service provider.
“We want to share everything we’ve learned over the past 25 years building this business from scratch, and make it a little easier for the next bunch of kids in a shed to turn their dream into reality.”
‘More like a startup’
Explaining the decision to return to private ownership, Petszaft said 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 added that Atom Group remains “much more like a startup than an established mature business with stable processes that can be easily scaled”.
Petszaft said he was “over the moon” when AB InBev approached him with a buyback proposition, after which they spent several weeks working on a transition plan.
He continued: “I could not be more grateful to AB InBev for their support over the years, and their unparalleled professionalism and decency in recognising that Atom could only reach its full potential as an independent founder-led company and facilitating the transition back to independence.”
Related news