Pick n Pay has concluded a deal to purchase on-demand alcohol and grocery delivery service Bottles, which was launched in 2016 as South Africa’s first alcohol on-demand delivery app, and partnered with Pick n Pay in 2018.
Bottles repurposed its app when the lockdown began to deliver on-demand groceries to customers through a service it calls Grocery Essentials. The acquisition of Bottles is expected to be completed by November 2020, and founding members Enrico Ferigolli and Vincent Viviers will move to Pick n Pay alongside key managers and staff.
The Bottles app has been downloaded over 700,000 times and has acquired over 350,000 registered users since it pivoted to grocery deliveries on 31 March 2020.
“The Grocery Essentials offer has been hugely popular with customers, building on Bottles’s achievement as the best-rated app by customers in the sector,” said Pick n Pay CEO Richard Brasher.
Brasher said Pick n Pay has seen a surge in demand for online groceries in South Africa over the lockdown period.
“Together with our franchise partners, we have responded by expanding the number of stores which deliver or offer click and collect services. Our sales growth has more than doubled, and we have seen a 200% increase in active customers,” said Brasher.
“We are therefore delighted to be acquiring Bottles. It will enable us to build on the tremendous momentum we have achieved by integrating the Bottles business into our existing online offer, and applying Bottles’s agility, innovation and marketing flair across our platform.”
“Our aim is to have a business which customers can access anytime, anywhere and from any place,” said Brasher.
“We already have two large online depots, and a home-delivery and click-and-collect network comprising over 150 stores. Bringing Bottles into Pick n Pay will give us another edge, and enable us to offer more services and more flexibility to customers in this rapidly growing area.”
