The firm has embarked upon an ambitious expansion drive this year, having also snapped up fellow e-commerce player Barcart in June.
Flaviar said that the acquisition of Wine-Searcher ‘cements its dominant position as the global leader in beverage alcohol’.
Wine-Searcher is a leading database for wine enthusiasts, which provides information about thousands of wines, including price and availability.
‘This is a classic case where the sum is greater than the parts,’ said Flaviar CEO Jugoslav Petkovic, a Slovenian entrepreneur who co-founded the company in 2012.
‘We at Flaviar are experts in spirits and e-commerce in the US and Europe, while Wine-Searcher brings unparalleled global reach, depth of wine expertise and a wealth of historic pricing and availability data.
‘At the same time our two companies share a lot of our values, especially around independence, focus on benefits to the consumer and acting as an enabler for the industry participants to operate and improve their business.’
Wine-Searcher was established in 1999. It has featured around 18 million listings from more than 33,000 vendors, spread across 126 countries.
The database is searched nearly 300 million times per year, according to the company, and it has more than five million monthly active users.
‘After nearly 25 years of building Wine-Searcher’s database, relationships and reputation I’m leaving the company in the capable hands of a wonderful team and with full confidence that with the seasoned management team and new ownership the best days are still ahead,’ said Wine-Searcher founder Martin Brown.
