Wine-Searcher sale in the works for over a year, CEO says

After the news of Wine-Searcher’s acquisition by Flaviar Inc broke earlier this week, CEO Julian Perry spoke to db about taking the search engine “to the next level”.

Julian Perry, who has been CEO at Wine-Searcher since April 2018, told the drinks business that the company had been actively looking for a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) partner since last year.

“We had been approached many times over the preceding years but a satisfactory partner and deal had not been found, so we decided to run a more structured process working with FinnCap Cavendish in London.”

He noted that founder Martin Brown, who retired as company chair in August 2022, “felt it was the right time to step back and find a new partner to take Wine-Searcher to the next level”.

Wine-Searcher has now been acquired by beverage manufacturer and e-commerce company Flaviar Inc, formerly focused on spirits, which is using the purchase to expand into wine.

According to Perry, the two companies began negotiations in January 2023.

Wine-Searcher has already begun new projects with Flaviar, but Perry stressed that the company’s “existing identity, offices, staff” will remain unchanged.

“Wine-Searcher will not be absorbed or merged into Flaviar – rather we will operate within the Flaviar group,” he said. “We have already started on new projects with Flaviar – our technical and business teams are already cooperating in a way that is inspiring for me to witness. We plan to make our platform even more useful and more intuitive for our millions of monthly users.

“Flaviar’s e-commerce and marketing skills – previously focused on spirits – are directly complementary and will allow us to jointly move fast to help the industry by better serving our users.”

Perry also made it clear that the acquisition was not a result of any economic challenges. “The company’s growth has been stable over the years,” he said, saying it continues to maintain “long term strong financial health”.