The winner of the 2020 Beer & Brewer Awards Best Retailer – Online is Beer Cartel.
It’s accolades like this, and a general love of craft beer and getting to share that craft beer love with others, that really drives us as a team.”
Richard Kelsey, Beer Cartel
These awards feature in the Summer 2020/21 edition of Beer & Brewer. Head here to discover all of our great subscription offers.
In a year when Australia went online in search of their beer, competition for this award was fierce. But for the fourth year in a row Beer Cartel has won out as the best in a field of very strong performers.
“This year has been absolutely massive for us,” co-owner Richard Kelsey said.
“We have a target growth rate of 25 per cent each year, but this year we’ve had months where we’ve grown by over 100 per cent. We doubled the staff we employed, including picking up a lot of people that had their jobs stopped because of COVID, and then really shifted how we pick and pack orders. We are now picking hundreds of parcels each day with ease, all while making sure that people are getting exactly what they’re ordering as quickly as possible.
“It’s been pretty exciting as we’ve crammed two to three years growth into just one year, all the while building out Beer Cartel to cope with the growth. And the great thing is, while we had all these challenges, we were still able to keep up with orders and get them picked, packed and sent within the same timelines we always have – which is an amazing result and a reflection of the great team we have. There has definitely been a bit of pressure, and while we would much prefer COVID never existed, it has been a year we’ll never forget.”
In the quickly changing landscape, reconfigured by COVID, Beer Cartel felt their ability to evolve and cope with the massive increase in demand by refining their processes was key to their success.
“We’ve also created new products such as our Isolation Beer Packs which were a real hit, plus increased our stock levels to keep up with the big increase in demand. Alongside these there has been a huge increase in our beer subscriptions, plus we’ve created strong partnerships with some of our most popular breweries such as Mountain Culture to ensure we have the beers everyone loves and wants.”
beercartel.com.au