SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – FEBRUARY 10, 2022 – When Australian-based Lyre’s, the world’s leading non-alcoholic spirits brand, wanted to expand into the U.S. market, it recognized the need for a logistics partner that knew the playing field, had specific expertise, and could flex and scale quickly.
“We wanted someone with beverage logistics experience,” noted Joshua Carlos, Lyre’s SVP for North America. “We had two critical needs, a partner who could immediately support us as a startup, with a direct-to-consumer strategy, filling eCommerce orders from our website,” Carlos recalled. “And scale and agility, someone who could provide the infrastructure resources, domain expertise, technology and speed to market, as our supply chain needs grew and evolved.”
A conversation with a former Snapple executive led to a meeting with John Vaccaro, President of Bettaway. The Lyre’s team outlined their needs, particularly an accelerated eCommerce-driven go-to-market plan. “We put together a single-source solution that included warehousing and managing product flow, eCommerce order fulfillment, custom packaging, inventory tracking and visibility,” Vaccaro noted.
Layered into that was a program of Bettaway’s 3PL services for phase two: extending Lyre’s into wholesale beverage distribution, taking in orders, building pallet-loads, and staging orders for shipping to wholesale distributors and other large customers, like grocery and liquor stores.
“The advantage to Bettaway was that they were able to integrate immediately with our direct-to-consumer business, for eCommerce fulfillment and to provide a bundled 3PL service that supported our B-to-B clients with larger volume deliveries. They spun it up in less than a month,” noted Carlos. “We got both services under one roof and the technology capabilities to cost-effectively manage our supply chain and meet our customers’ needs, as the product’s popularity accelerated that saved us in logistics and transportation costs and gave us the distribution infrastructure, resources and expertise to manage rapidly growing demand.”
Lyre’s specializes in non-alcoholic cocktails that are sophisticated and don’t compromise on taste, flavor or appearance in consumption – just no alcohol. Initially, the company shipped product via ocean from Australia with Bettaway providing 3PL drayage services from the Port of Los Angeles, then unloading and staging product in a Compton, California facility.
Bettaway launched “bottle one case one” of its program for Lyre’s in April 2020, starting with thirteen spirit flavors – and fulfilling its first eCommerce order. Bettaway’s East Coast distribution center, BevDS in Piscataway, NJ, was subsequently added later that summer with product arriving from the Port of New York and New Jersey. This enabled Bettaway to fulfill and deliver Lyre’s eCommerce orders via parcel carriers, within one or two days from the two DC locations on the east and west coasts.
That initial April eCommerce order foreshadowed an untapped demand among consumers for Lyre’s products. Within 18 months, Bettaway was fulfilling more than 1,000 direct-to-consumer eCommerce orders of Lyre’s spirits a week, handling 15 different product SKUs with over 50 different SKU set and bundle combinations, and peaking at nearly 12,000 eCommerce-ordered bottles for dry January.
As the direct-to-consumer business grew, Lyre’s added a distributor channel, contracting with Southern Glazier’s Wine and Spirits as its more traditional wholesale spirits distributor. Bettaway then began receiving electronic orders for the distributor, building out palletized less-than-truckload and truckload shipments for delivery to Southern Glazier’s facilities. Later expansions added orders via Amazon and drop-shipments to major retailers like Target.
Carlos cited as a key advantage Bettaway’s flexibility and agility, as well as its systems and the ability to provide real-time reporting on inventory down to the SKU, product, and sell-by level. Its beverage experience and packing line systems, also enabled flexibility for different types of packaging configurations, as well as efficient order management for both ecommerce and full- or less-than-truckload distributor shipments.
“This was a classic beverage go-to-market start-up that had all the typical challenges and pressures,” recalled Vaccaro. “The market for non-alcoholic spirits that provide the same taste experience as an alcohol counterpart is one of the fastest growing segments in the beverage industry. We consider it a real feather in our cap that Lyre’s came to us, and we have been able to support and scale as their business has grown and their supply chain needs evolved.”
Lyre’s produces the world’s most popular spirits in a non-alcoholic format, each as close to the original premium volume spirit as possible. Since its founding in 2019, it has grown to become the world’s leading independent non-alcoholic spirit’s brand.
Its expanding portfolio of premium non-alcoholic spirits is capable of crafting 90% of the world’s best-selling cocktails while also underpinning a ready-to-drink range. Lyre’s partnered with one of the world’s most advanced beverage technology companies, to create the perfect combination of ingredients and adapt to new market requirements.
Lyre’s currently sells in over 50 countries across multiple channels, including direct-to-consumer via its website. It has partnerships with leading retailers and brands globally and is stocked in many of the world’s top 50 bars.
About Bettaway Supply Chain Services and BevDS: South Plainfield, NJ-based Bettaway is an integrated material handling, transportation, and supply chain management company. Bettaway is an industry leader in beverage distribution and pallet management solutions, delivering a managed service program built on a network of facilities and a centralized suite of pallet services.
https://www.bettaway.com/warehouse/#distribution
