"Flaschenpost" deal with Oetker

"Flaschenpost" deal with Oetker

The leading delivery service in Germany for mostly beverages will change ownership and become part of the Oetker group. Oetker on the other hand, owner of the largest brewery group Radeberger had to acknowledge that their clone "Durstexpress" may not take over the leadership anytime soon.


With an estimated price of 1 billion €, this marks one of the largest corporate/startup deals in Germany.

For this, I would overall congratulate everyone involved and especially the people behind Flaschenpost.

What makes this case so interesting for me is not inherently the financial and the deal. It is an acknowledgment of how brands are having trouble when they are pushed further down the funnel.
Because seemingly Flaschenpost has achieved something that many thought wouldn't be possible without a large marketing investment. They introduced owned brands for beer and other segments and gained relevant share in their store with it.

This adds to the already lengthy list of Amazon Brands that outpace household names as much as FB/IG and Google allows for introducing new brands at a much lower price.

The brand loyalty and the value of such is from my point of view decreasing every day. More and more cases show how the direct connection with the customer allows you to decide what brands customers want to buy.

Becoming an intermediate in any way, from online shop to service providers allows you to introduce brands and products at a cheaper rate with oftentimes more stability.

But this comes also at a price, as much as it helps the individual to create brands, it also means you are less likely to create a competitive advantage around it. Brands are coming and going at a much quicker pace.

What Flaschenpost now has to achieve is to stay relevant and not getting pushed aside by alternatives. This will be a hard task, given the fact that the packages are heavy and the workers are paid on the lower end.
Logistic optimization is a numbers game.

Competition comes from many sides, traditional retail is adding delivery capabilities. E-Commerce models for food are starting left and right. Mobility concepts are also spiking which either allow for better transportation of the products or combining it with other activities.

It might very well be worth it for Oetker to not get pushed out of the game, from a consumer standpoint I am not sure if this is really what I am looking for in the long run. Given my experience and those of many others where many have used it once or twice and then never used it again after having trouble with delivery windows.

Also, it seems to be very deal-driven right now, something that might be reduced once there are fewer competitors out there but for many products, people will just look where it is cheap and use than the source which fits best.
Leaving the 5. floor without elevator deliveries to Flaschenpost. Not sure how attractive this is going forward!