flaschenpost.de – A Surging Delivery Start-Up

They have only been around for a few years, but many people in German cities have already got used to their sight: the colorful vans of the beverage deliverer with the pun in its name: flaschenpost.de. The start-up – whose name translates to “message in a bottle” – started its online ordering and delivery service of beverages in the German town of Münster in 2016 and expanded its business within just four years to 23 cities and over 2 million orders per year all over Germany, according to company information. Flaschenpost has lately also benefitted from the corona crisis and the general shift towards online shopping and delivery services. Now the start-up has been acquired by food giant Dr. Oetker, supposedly for a sum of €1 billion, but no details have been disclosed. The acquisition is surprising at first sight, since Dr. Oetker runs its own beverage delivery service: durstexpress.de – a direct competitor to flaschenpost.de. Whether both brands will prevail, remains to be seen. ecommerceDB.com estimates flaschenpost.de’s net sales of the past years as follows:

In 2016, when flaschenpost.de was launched, the online store generated net sales of €3.1 million. The start-up was able to increase its net sales almost fifteen-fold in just three years, and reached a total of €47.2 million in net sales in 2019. The steepest net sales increase was registered between 2017 and 2018: In the said year, net sales grew from €4.7 million to €18.9 million. This corresponds to a year-on-year growth of an overwhelming 300%. But growth rates continue to be high for flaschenpost.de. Net sales in 2019 again increased by a strong 150% compared to 2018, and the growth path is not likely to have ended since then. Given the increased demand for food and also beverage delivery services during the 2020 corona pandemic, flaschenpost.de is likely to break another growth record this year. Also in the hands of Dr. Oetker, the success story of flaschenpost.de will probably be a long one.