Master of Malt is 100% founder-owned again

Well, we have some big news guys and it’s concerning us. 

We are now, once again, 100% founder-owned. That means the Atom Group and all that makes it up – Master of Malt, Master of Malt Trade, Maverick Drinks, and Atom Brands – is fully independent and no longer part of AB InBev’s ZX Ventures.

Our humble multi-award-winning online retailer, wholesaler, distributor, and drinks brand innovator has returned to the control of our founder and winner of every spice challenge an Indian restaurant has ever set in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Justin Petszaft.

“I am incredibly proud to be able to say that we are once again a fully independent and 100% founder-owned business,” says Petszaft. “We can now focus on growing a beautiful ecosystem comprising every link in the premium spirits value chain, which is also open to the rest of the industry as a platform and service provider. We want to share everything we’ve learned over the last 25 years building this business from scratch, and make it a little easier for the next bunch of kids in a shed to turn their dream into reality.”

He goes on to explain “When I built the first Master of Malt website back in 1999, I had no idea then that I would still be here a quarter of a century later.

For years, I was a one-man band – chief cook and bottle washer – and yet, slowly but surely, things began to grow, and in 2009 we built an entirely new e-commerce tech platform from scratch and the company took off.  Back then the industry was something of a sleeping giant waiting to be disrupted by the internet, and we were just a bunch of kids who didn’t really know what we were doing but knew there was something special here we could build if only we could work out how – we made a lot of mistakes, but somehow over the next few years we managed to build the number one online whisky retailer in the world, as well as a trade, distribution and product businesses all in one tightly coupled self-reinforcing ecosystem.

Soon people were knocking on the door trying to buy us, and in April 2018, we agreed to sell the business to AB InBev.  We went into the AB InBev relationship with a lot of excitement and energy, and a lot of hope about what could be accomplished together; we felt they were as ambitious and excited by how technology could transform the drinks industry as we were.

However, despite the progress we made, it eventually became clear that Atom was still too early in its life cycle to fit well within AB InBev and make the most of the resources available. In many ways, we were and still are much more like a startup than an established mature business with stable processes which can be easily scaled.

As you can imagine, I was over the moon when AB InBev reached out to float the buyback proposition, and we spent the next few weeks working night and day to put together a transition plan.

I could not be more grateful to AB InBev for their support over the years, and their unparalleled professionalism and decency in recognising that Atom could only reach its full potential as an independent founder-lead company and facilitating the transition back to independence.”

So, there you have it. We are once again the champions of our destiny. The master of our own malts. We will continue to do what we do best: put great drinks into your hands.

P.S. Justin is very open to having a chat with any of you who have feedback on what we could do better and how we can build a better company for you. Feel free to comment on this blog and we’ll get the message back to the big man.

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