Premium craft beer retailer, Beer Cartel, has announced plans to close its bricks and mortar store and move its business to be 100 per cent online, but is not ruling out the possibility of opening stores again in the future.
Co-Founder Richard Kelsey said the change has been driven by the move to a new warehouse and the requirement of the new site and licensing restrictions meant having a bricks and mortar store was not possible.
“Our move to the new site just up the road in St. Leonards has been done to realise the efficiencies from bringing our two business units, Beer Cartel and Brewquets, back into one warehouse.
“During the past three years driven by Covid we’ve seen significant online growth and as a result had to move the Brewquets business into a separate warehouse to keep up with demand. With our lease at our current Reserve Rd (Beer Cartel) site coming to an end we have found a new warehouse which will support the business for the next five to 10 years,” Kelsey said.
He added: “We’d like to say a big thanks to all the customers that have come to support the store from when it first opened in 2011 to now. When we first started online sales of alcohol in Australia were small. It was the support of those that came to the store that helped keep us moving forward during the early years.”
Beer Cartel was based on Sydney’s North Shore, but Kelsey said it was very humbling that the store would get regular visitors from as far away as the Blue Mountains and Central Coast.
“There’s been lots of familiar faces and relationships that we’re definitely going to miss, but we’re not going away, we’ll be look at bringing more of the offline side of the business online,” he said.
While it is the end of Beer Cartel having a store front connected to the warehouse, Kelsey said it isn’t the end of their bricks and mortar aspirations.
“We’ll be looking at options for this going forward and see if there are any opportunities to open a store, including partnering with others in the industry,” he said.
The last day of operation of Beer Cartel’s store at its Reserve Rd site will be New Year’s Eve after which it will then be 100% online at www.beercartel.com.au.
“We know how much people do enjoy having a good beer while ringing in the new year. We’ve had many great experiences of this ourselves so thought it would be the perfect last day for the store,” Kelsey said.