Konvoy Kegs, a keg rental firm in Australia and New Zealand, said is plans to shake up the brewing and hospitality industries by launching operations across the UK & Europe.
Konvoy, which will enter the UK & Europe market in early 2023, is the world’s only stainless-steel keg pooling provider that is promising a fully cutting-edge smart keg management solution.
The new business will lead with its sharable keg rental offering at its core, with long-term rentals, also referred to as leasing, and its proprietary IoT tracking technology. Even if brewers choose to remain keg owners, Konvoy can help them track their assets and become a better business as a result.
The technology captures encrypted data that can pinpoint each keg’s precise location, enabling things like better rotation, fresher deliveries, faster collections, and greater reusability. In addition, the device logs other important data, such as temperature, to create a fleet of smart kegs that can keep getting smarter to meet the future demands of the drinks supply chain.
It also removes the need for manual tracking, scanning and administration while helping to minimise theft and losses, which is a global keg problem estimated to cost between $300m-$500m per year, according to a 2020 article published by ‘IT In The Supply Chain’.
Konvoy is providing an ecosystem of assets, hardware, software, firmware, and connectivity that can also be fitted retrospectively to existing keg fleets to achieve the same results.
In advance of this expansion with short- and long-term keg rental and technology solutions, Konvoy has announced a series of strategic, high-level appointments to scale the business forward and disrupt the market.
Christian Barden (above) will head up the new UK & Europe business as CEO. Chris Beardow has been appointed Operations Director. Richard Atkinson and Tom Meakin have both been appointed Business Development Director for the UK & Ireland. Heiko Wiebel has been appointed Business Development Director for Europe where he has made considerable progress over recent months.
Adam Trippe-Smith, managing director and founder of Konvoy, said: “I am incredibly proud to announce this series of appointments, which runs along considerable growth plans for the Konvoy business.
“We are excited to launch officially in the UK and Europe in early 2023 as we continue to disrupt the global keg industry one keg at a time.
“Europe, particularly, has been a hard nut to crack in terms of convincing brewers of the huge potential cost reductions, improved margins and reduced carbon footprint involved in leasing and renting kegs rather than buying your own. We are setting out to change all that and help bring the beverage industry into the 21st Century.”
The firm’s innovative keg pooling and tracking business model vastly increases environmental sustainability as Konvoy customers effectively share the ‘pool’ of kegs that they rent on demand across cities, regions and between countries for export.
Christian Barden, former CEO of Kegstar and global beer industry veteran, who previously worked alongside Adam when they launched Kegstar into Europe in 2016, said: “It will be incredible to get working with such a great team and technology platform and evolve the world of keg management with Adam Trippe-Smith again.
“Drinks and hospitality have always been so innovative, and we’re excited to be ‘here for your beer’, wherever we can help customer supply chain experiences. We have a great team full of beer industry expertise, a ton of keg know-how and a pool of smart kegs available to help customers become more efficient, more effective and more sustainable.”
He added: “The automatic collection of data through IoT systems like ours helps make monitoring and tracking frictionless, helps to improve the demand and supply process of draught drinks whilst eliminating human error. The connection of vehicles, equipment and devices enables all parties to see a complete, end-to-end supply chain picture from brewery to bar.”
Following continued customer wins in the ANZ market since its launch in 2019, Konvoy is growing its fleet there with new keg investment of around A$10m.
The move comes hot on the heels of the appointment in August of new CFO Michael Campbell, formerly CFO of the Rockpool Dining Group.
Michael said: “Konvoy has achieved impressive market share in Australia and New Zealand since launch and its technology will be a key differentiator for expansion into new markets.”
