Published: July 13, 2021
CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Next Glass, a leading global provider of software, experiences, services, and commerce solutions to the beverage alcohol industry, today announced the acquisition of Vancouver, CA-based Ollie Order (“Ollie”), the leading Canadian omnichannel multi-tenant alcohol marketplace platform. Ollie facilitates all aspects of transactions between buyers, logistics providers, and suppliers in the beverage-alcohol industry, including discovery of the latest craft products, fulfillment, accounting, inventory, payments, invoices, CRM, and government reporting for B2B and B2C online and in-person commerce.
As the number of craft producers, including breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries has grown globally, SKU counts have proliferated and complicated the ordering process. While this explosion of growth is a positive for the industry and consumers, it adds significant complexity to the buying and selling ecosystem. Beverage alcohol retailers and on-premise venues, along with the craft producers themselves, have struggled to navigate the fragmented ordering process which includes email, phone, fax and text and which often requires duplicate data entry in multiple systems such as government reporting, accounting, logistics, inventory management, and payment processing.
Ollie removes friction from this system, simplifying the process and benefitting producers, wholesalers, retailers, and, ultimately, consumers. The platform’s robust suite of features empowers users to easily manage inventory, distribution, payments, customer relationships and sales. This breakthrough in efficiency and connectivity provides a wider array of craft producers’ products to be readily available to a growing consumer base.
Founded in 2019 by Ryan Wilson, Jesse Bannister, and Mike Macquisten, Ollie has experienced rapid adoption in British Columbia and is used to power the day-to-day B2B and B2C commerce needs of hundreds of producers, wholesalers, and retailers. In joining Next Glass, Ryan Wilson will continue as CEO of Ollie and assume the role of President of the newly established Next Glass Commerce division. Oznr, Next Glass’s craft beverage marketplace platform, will marry its leading feature set with Ollie to provide a turnkey B2B2C solution to the industry. The complementary features of Next Glass’s Untappd Marketplace, focused on U.S. B2B alcohol ordering, will be subsumed by Ollie as it eyes U.S. expansion.
“The alcohol industry has changed dramatically,” said Ryan Wilson, Founder & CEO of Ollie. “What started with a handful of producers has grown to include thousands of smaller and mid-sized producers. The procurement process has not kept up. Ollie levels the playing field for everyone involved by making the ordering process universally simple, from the start-up to the largest national brands.”
Ollie currently serves more than 300 brands and 2,000+ buyers and brings additional capabilities to the Next Glass suite of product offerings, which includes the world’s leading beverage menu publishing solution, Untappd for Business. “Under Ryan’s leadership, the Ollie team has built an incredible platform that aligns with Next Glass’s mission of advancing the beverage industry through innovative technology,” said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass. “The Ollie team and technology are best-in-class, as evidenced by the rapid adoption of the platform in Canada. We are confident that Ollie’s product, which greatly simplifies a needlessly tedious process and saves buyers and sellers valuable time, money, and headaches, will find favor with industry constituents in markets beyond Canada.”
In 2021, Next Glass and Ollie look forward to expanding into additional Canadian provinces, including Ontario. “We have served our customers with a platform built on a solid foundation and determined vision,” said Wilson. “We see this opportunity to join the Next Glass family as one that provides us global reach and access to hundreds of thousands of buyers and sellers in the industry. That reach and access will allow us to build, scale, and reach new markets on an accelerated timeline.”
About Next Glass
Founded in 2013, Next Glass provides software, experiences, services, and commerce solutions that connect enthusiasts, retailers, and producers in the beverage alcohol industry. Its award-winning Untappd mobile application and BeerAdvocate website are used by millions of beer enthusiasts around the world and its menu publishing software tool, Untappd for Business, enables venues to streamline publication and promotion of their beer, wine, cocktail, and food menus. In late-2019 the Company added its Live! division to produce world-class festivals and events and in 2020, Next Glass welcomed Hop Culture and Oznr to the family, offering lifestyle engagement and producer-to-consumer commerce opportunities to the industry. For more information, please visit: www.NextGlass.co.
About Ollie
Ollie provides British Columbia-based independent beverage alcohol manufacturers, wholesalers, and buyers with a dynamic platform to manage their catalog, orders, inventory, payments, invoices, government reporting and fulfillment. Ollie works with a great community, alongside a growing British Columbia independent beer, wine, cider and spirits community who utilize Ollie to discover new products, place orders and interact with sales representatives. https://www.ollieorder.com/
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