Singapore has become Vinomofo’s fastest growing market and the online wine retailer is now poised to set up shop in the US
Singapore is Australian online wine retailer Vinomofo's fastest growing market which co-founder Justin Dry attributes to a high density of high-income professionals with spending power.
If you've heard of Australian online wine retailer Vinomofo and think the name itself doesn't reflect a seriousness in wines, its co-founder Justin Dry has a message for you.
"I think people who aren't okay with that are probably not our people anyway. It's really an attitude that says to life: 'get rid of all the bowties and BS and let's just be real and talk about wine'," he said without any reservation.
In an interview with Business Insider recently, Dry touched on a number of topics including the company's expansion plans, and how regular customers are called 'mofos', which he knows might not sit well with everyone.
He said: "We have some crazy older mofos in our audience that buy great wines and they have a great attitude to life. I'm sure there are younger people in their 20s that have that stuffy, pompous attitude that won't find us appealing and I don't mind that."
"They're not our people anyway."
That's coming from a self-confessed wine nerd whose ancestors planted some of the finest vines in Adelaide's Barossa Valley that played so much of an influence in his life, he, along with his brother-in-law Andre Eikmeier decided to go town with their offerings in 2011.
The two entrepreneurs had initially started a company called Qwoff in 2007, which was really more of a social network for wine enthusiasts to bond with each other while rating and reviewing wine.
And no surprises but the site's followers were called Qwoffers.
Four years later, Qwoff suffered financially and the two men decided to ditch it for a new concept in mind: a wine deals website that would cut out as many middlemen as possible to deliver high quality wines to people at a fraction of the cost they were used to.
And so Vinomofo was born in 2011 and it has gone on to becoming one of Australia's fastest-growing companies.
It's even bagged accolades along the way like the Fastest Growing Company at the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Awards in 2013 and Online Retailer of the Year 2015 at ORIAS.
The site has since expanded to New Zealand and Singapore thanks to the 600,000 'mofos' it has amassed in various markets, turning it into a multi-million dollar business that just keeps growing.
In fact, Dry, who handles revealed that his eyes are now set on setting up shop in California in the United States with a target launch date slated for sometime in July or August this year.
Vinomofo, which has about 130 staff members globally, is also looking to bring its offerings to 13 other US states under its licensing terms.
He said: "With 14 states and 80 million people in that space, it's a good space for us."
Dry, who overseas the company's overseas markets, intends to be based in the US, leaving Eikmeier back home to run the Australian arm of the business.
He said: "I'm taking with me about two team members and plan to hire a few employees locally."
"We're trying to leverage the current team that we have in Australia as much as we can but there are things that we just can't like customer service and there's a time difference too."
So far, Singapore has shown itself to be Vinomofo's fastest growing market since its entry in December 2016, and Dry attributes this to many high-income professionals with strong spending power.
In fact, the average order value in Singapore is about $300, which is higher than the Australia and New Zealand markets which are typically comes in at between $100 and $200 with a top end of $250.
"I think for the size of the population, it punches well above its weight in terms of wine spend," Dry said of the 20,000-strong 'mofo' community in Singapore.