VINEX, a wine exchange where grapes, bulk and bottled wine can be bought and sold, has created a new wine payments platform called VINPay. It means that sellers are paid faster, while buyers can hold on to their cash longer.
“Producers, understandably, are not wanting to carry the risk of their buyer not paying, and so this is an opportunity to provide that assurance, and at the same time provide buyers an opportunity to preserve their cash flow well beyond 60 or 90 days,” said Denys Hornabrook, co-founder and managing director.
VINEX says that the lack of capital liquidity remains a significant barrier to producers increasing their rate of growth, or even maintain their prior sales, and that VINPay is designed to alleviate this.
It works like this: say a buyer places an order through the platform – for Argentine Malbec, for example – and the producer despatches it. Three days later, VINEX will pay 80% of the producer’s invoice for the Malbec. The buyer can take up to 150 days to pay VINEX back, though a discount applies if they pay cash immediately. VINEX does not charge interest.
"We charge one settlement fee starting from 2.25% which the supplier pays,” says Hornabrook. “Payment terms are either 60 or 90 days, and the buyer can extend the terms by 60 days, up to 150 days for a 1.85% fee."
VINEX launched its trading exchange in 2016 and buyer can now use it to source wine from more than 15 countries. According to the company, more than 100m litres of bulk and bottled wine is available through the platform each month.
VINEX was founded in Adelaide, South Australia but is domiciled in the UK.
