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Online specialty beer shop Beerwulf crossed its own national border for the first time last September when it opened a store for Belgian consumers. Meanwhile, the shop is also active in Germany, France and England. Three new markets are on the horizon.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This is what marketing manager Marc Scholten tells Twinkle. Beerwulf would like to become the "largest online craft and specialty beer player in Europe. To achieve that, the company has drawn up an extensive Crossborder plan, something Scholten will talk more about during the CrossBorder Event (Sept. 6). 'The idea at Beerwulf was to roll out fairly quickly to these four countries. We looked at logistics, the market potential in terms of specialty beer and the position of specialty beer in total alcohol consumption. We put this together and from that came a list of potential markets.'
New markets
Beerwulf is currently preparing to launch in three new markets in Europe. 'The only question is when we will go. We are growing so fast that now it is important to take a bit of a break,' Scholten continued. 'It is also important for us to start doing better in the existing countries in terms of service, delivery and assortment optimization. We are currently working on our own warehouse in England, but we don't have one yet.' Logistics is an important element at the pure player. 'Our border does lie in Europe, if it has to be on a boat then it becomes quite difficult.'
Difference in beer cultures
Although Beerwulf's present markets are relatively close to each other, there is a big difference in beer cultures. 'Belgium is a traditional market with the well-known blonde, double and triple beers. There, the Craft beer market - beers brewed in microbreweries - is still quite small. In Germany, you have a lot of local breweries making quite accessible beer and the trend of Craft beer is present in some big cities. But there they just have the reinheitsgebot, the German beer law, which makes an international range difficult to trade. In England again, traditional Belgian beers are very much in demand. They are very popular there only quite expensive and distribution is quite poor. There we are almost becoming a Belgian beer store. So there again we are now looking closely at a complementary assortment.'
Triangle
Affiliated brewers also benefit from Beerwulf's crossborder strategy. 'We want to create a kind of triangle between the brewer, the consumer and ourselves. So that the brewers also get an important role and so you are not a flat store but that they can also tell their story. Some brewers only distribute in the Netherlands but are now also for sale in, say, France or England. That's generally great for such brewers.'
Not easy
Met een ambitie om de grootste te worden in Europa – een continent waartoe 51 landen behoren – valt er voor Beerwulf nog een hoop te winnen. Toch is het niet eenvoudig om in elk land een online speciaalbier webshop te starten. ‘Sommige landen hebben andere regels qua alcoholverkoop, daardoor vallen er een aantal af. Bij sommige is speciaalbier best wel booming maar daar is het e-commercelandschap vrij onontwikkeld, zeker op landelijk niveau, dus niet in de grote steden. Maar als je, zoals wij, landelijke dekking wilt beloven dan is het misschien beter om bij sommige landen even te wachten.’[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1534145179089{padding-top: 10px !important;}”]Bron: Twinkle Magazine – Beerwulf[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
