Vinofomo boss Justin Dry whets his appetite for listing online wine retailer

Mr Dry, who will now focus on the emerging growth areas of the business, said: “I’ve seen a lot of my friends in the industry go down that path [to an IPO] and obviously the market is open for that at this stage but we certainly haven’t made any firm decisions.”

He said Vinomofo had recorded increased sales from its existing clients during the pandemic which had also driven new customers to its website, who have continued to order online despite restrictions easing.

“Those people that were using us a little bit, used us more, and those people that hadn’t used us, tried us,” Mr Dry said. “We see it as an enduring and permanent shift in the majority so we’re really excited about where online wine is at the moment.”

Mr Dry started Vinomofo with his brother-in-law Andre Eikmeier from a garage in Adelaide in 2011 and what began as a wine blog and daily deals site has grown into one of the biggest players in Australia’s online wine market.

The startup’s most recent published financial accounts filed with the corporate regulator for 2018-2019 financial year recorded revenue of $45 million and an after-tax profit of $280,704.

However Covid has given Vinomofo a recent boost with an estimated increase in revenue to $80 million and almost 80,000 customers.

Mr Dry said Vinomofo was also benefiting from the trade restrictions imposed by China which meant there was an excess of high quality Australian wine that needed to be sold on the domestic market.

“What you’ve got at the moment is a lot of really incredible wine coming back into the market,” he said.

Mr Edington said the leadership change would build up Vinomofo’s business capability and strengthen governance at the startup. “I’m much more geeky in terms of business and corporate governance and strategy stuff,” he said.

“We’re no longer on this fabulous, innovative startup phase, it’s really that fabulous growth phase and mature expansion phase.”

Mr Dry said he was looking forward to stepping back from his role as chief executive to focus on innovation. “Having the opportunity to play again as an entrepreneur within this business that’s in a great place both now and going forward, I’m super pumped about it.”