A bottle shop that comes to you

An idea that seems long overdue, alcohol delivery, is unsurprisingly taking off in the inner-city with the new service Tipple.

In just 12 months, co-CEOs Matt Walsh and Ryan Barrington have expanded the service to more than 120 suburbs and has carried out more than 20,000 deliveries.

Tipple not only guarantees delivery in under an hour but drinks are delivered to the customer’s door cold and ready to drink.

As a former inner-city resident himself, Matt Walsh said the service had already proven to be a massive hit for people living in apartments. “This is just a super solution for people who live in apartments chasing convenience,” he said.

“We believe the Tipple alcohol delivery business has significant appeal to people who live in apartments where it’s a bit more difficult to get in and out with heavy purchases.

We remove the hassle.” While alcohol delivery exists in a handful of cases overseas, Tipple is the first business of its kind in Australia.

With a long background in the fast food and liquor industries, Tipple is Mr Barrington’s brainchild. “I came up with the concept probably two and a half years ago,” he said.

“My brother and I opened up a chain of kebab stores, to complement our bottle stores and we offered a delivery service.” “We thought we can deliver food in under an hour so why not alcohol?” Having started with one shop and a fleet of three delivery vehicles, the business has rapidly grown to four locations and more than 40 drivers.

Through its easy to use app, available through the App Store and Google Play, alcohol is delivered to your door cold thanks to the customised insulated carry containers fixed on each Tipple delivery bike.

And while the service has proven useful for people hosting a gathering at home, Matt said that most of its customers had incorporated Tipple as part of their regular shopping habits.

“Almost half of all of our deliveries are wine and we’re able to offer some pretty exciting and very well priced high quality wines,” he said. “Many of our customers who order regularly have just built us into the way they go about their alcohol purchases.

It’s been received very well and the repeat business validates what we’re doing.” Most importantly, Tipple takes responsible serving of alcohol (RSA) very seriously and has developed its app in such a way that enforces that message.

All drivers are RSA trained and valid ID is required upon every delivery.

With a vision of bringing the service to more cities around Australia, Mr Barrington said it was exciting to be at the forefront of a new marketplace.

“Everyone is so busy these days so instead of ordering 12 bottles that they don’t have storage space for, they’re ordering what they need for one or two nights at a time,” he said.

“Mobile phones have become the remote control for life. Customers want to be able to use their phone to co-ordinate various aspects of their lives.

Apps need to be easy and simple to use and improve the quality of life for customers.

At Tipple we want to improve the drinking experience for our customers.” For more information visit www.tipple.com.au