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db meets: Jimmy Metta of Spiritrade
Jimmy Metta, Spiritrade’s founder and CEO, tells us about the challenges the company has faced in the past year, and his plans for growth in the next 12 months.
How is business at the moment?
Spiritrade is growing due to the increased demand from drinks stockholders to trade stock. The pandemic has boosted our business due to the traditional routes to market being compromised. Brand owners and wholesalers are now using Spiritrade as a lucrative additional revenue stream to their businesses.
What has been your greatest challenge over the past 12 months?
Our greatest challenge has been to keep up with customer demand. Our global customer base all want to trade fast and we have been inundated with demands from businesses around the world. We are a tech business, and it is essential that our platform performs at all times and is able to handle the increased demand. We are continuously investing in technology to accommodate all the growth.
What has been the greatest opportunity to have come out of the pandemic?
The market has been forced to change in a good way. Businesses must adopt technology to survive, and the pandemic has been a catalyst for Spiritrade. Buyers and sellers need a safer, faster solution, given the restrictions, and we are uniquely positioned to assist all businesses, including brand owners, wholesalers, distributors and duty-free groups.
Have you been surprised by Spiritrade’s level of growth over the past year?
I have not been entirely surprised by our performance over the past 12 months. The industry was antiquated and inefficient for decades, and with the technology now available, we have come in at the right time to solve many problems drinks stockholders have been faced with. Our goal has always been to make our beloved drinks industry run in a far more efficient way, and I believe we have succeeded in doing that. We are now over 200% up on projections for year two.
What is your growth strategy for the next 12 months?
Our plan is to continue on our mission to ensure the drinks industry runs in a far more harmonious way. Through our technology and global reach we want to ensure businesses use Spiritrade not only to trade stock more efficiently to geographically intended markets, but in a way that will enable stockholders to achieve the optimal prices for their stocks. Spiritrade is gathering a lot of useful data and through our continuous commitments on technology we intend to become a fully integrated solution for all drinks businesses. This means that Spiritrade will eventually become a benchmark in global drinks pricing, enabling all stockholders to view the latest, fair market prices for all products.
How are you looking to further simplify the drinks trading process?
Spiritrade is taking a lot on, and the progress has been very encouraging. Our platform is the engine of this business, and we are fully committed to improving our bespoke technology by listening to our customers. Stock is shipped very recklessly in our industry, which adds to pollution and high costs. Our goal is to streamline that process by reducing the number of miles that goods must travel to arrive at their final destination. We are opening new warehouse hubs in Asia and in the US to create greater coverage and accessibility for our customers.
In what ways are you harnessing the latest developments in technology to streamline your business?
We are always pushing the boundaries and ensuring we do things to the best possible standards. We have a development team constantly working on adopting the latest technologies available. We update our platform weekly to accommodate all customer requirements and to ensure the robustness and functionality aspects. We will be rolling out an app in the months ahead to ensure customers can trade on the go.
Your platform is used in 70 countries; how much bigger would you like to get?
Our business is still a start-up, and we’ve only scratched the surface. My goal is to ensure all drinks businesses use our platform to some degree, whether it’s for trading or for information. We live in a fast-paced world, and traders want stock and information quickly without the transaction risks associated with it.