Botanical products manufacturer AMASS has made its first acquisition, purchasing the operating assets of direct-to-consumer wine subscription platform Winc, in an effort to expand its alcohol business beyond spirits and hard seltzer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to a press release, AMASS will be integrating Winc Wine Club’s “digital-first marketing and e-commerce experience” into its own business operations. Winc’s wines will join AMASS’ “rapidly growing portfolio of wine and spirits sold through traditional retail partners,” the company said.
In email comments to BevNET, AMASS Brands CEO Mark Thomas Lynn said the company eventually “plans to integrate elements of AMASS and WINC business(es), [but] the WINC subscription platform is and will continue to run without interruption.”
The acquisition helps the company achieve its vision of “creating a next-generation beverage company,” Lynn said. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to add a portfolio of outstanding wine brands to the AMASS portfolio and enhance our company’s capabilities with the deep wholesale and ecommerce experience of WINC.
Launched in 2019, Los Angeles-based AMASS Brands is an omni-channel provider of its own botanically driven beverages, as well as hand sanitizers, soaps, candles and other personal care items.
AMASS makes a gin, botanical vodka, a non-alcoholic spirit and three-SKUs of hard seltzer, but has also experimented with cannabis-infused, non-alc spirits. In 2021, AMASS released Afterdream, a THC- and CBD-infused, non-alc spirit, sold exclusively in Los Angeles-area dispensary chain Sweet Flower.
AMASS confirmed that it no longer makes THC beverages but has a “robust pipeline of other new and innovative beverages” to come.
Winc (originally Club W) was launched in 2012 as an accessible way to shop for wine by pairing consumers with products via a tasting questionnaire. As one of the first wave of subscription-based wine platforms, it raised around $54 million in progressive funding rounds from 2012 through 2020. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2021, raising an additional $22 million as pandemic-driven demand spiked the company’s sales, according to Crunchbase.
As consumers returned to pre-pandemic shopping habits, Winc sales slumped and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2022.