Entrepreneur Neha Kumar calls the period between 2012 and 2018 the DTC wine market’s “frothy era,” when private capital flooded into startups so quickly that founders faced increasing pressure to scale, sometimes at the expense of what they did best.

“A lot of the companies kind of had to pivot or steer away from what we would consider their core competencies,” Kumar told Retail Brew. “Because for anyone to make any money, the company [had] to hit a very large scale.”

One such startup was Winc, a subscription wine service that launched in 2012 and raised millions of dollars in venture capital before going public in 2021, only to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2022 without ever turning a profit.

This might have been the end of the story if not for Full Glass Wine. Co-founded by Kumar and Louis Amoroso, formerly of Drinks.com, the brand management and acquisition firm purchased the company last year because it saw promise in its underlying business model, according to Kumar.

But this was just the beginning of Full Glass Wine’s acquisition spree.

Keep reading here.—AV

It’s tough rn for retailers.

Last year, stores were sitting on $700m+ in excess inventory they couldn’t shift. Now, take that number and combine it with the fact that 89% of retailers have experienced massive cost increases over the last six months—yep, you’ve got yourself a pickle.

Good news: Sage is here to the rescue. Their exclusive inventory masterclass series is absolutely stacked with super-applicable insights and strategies on all kinds of topics that’ll help your biz grow and scale.

Next up, they’re taking a close look at the inventory issue within the fashion industry. Like, did you know Gap recently saw its warehouses creaking under a $30.4b inventory after racking up a 37% inventory increase year over year? Want more deets?

Let Sage solve your inventory conundrums.

For fans of brands that feature models of all shapes and sizes, including Parade, Savage x Fenty, and Summersalt, it may come as a surprise that a generation ago, it was rare to find models in ads who looked like they’d ever been in the same room as a carbohydrate.

But in 2004, it was a novelty when Dove, the Unilever brand, introduced its Dove Real Beauty campaign, which eschewed professional models to feature women of varying sizes, ages, and ethnicities.

“If the fad becomes a trend…it has the potential to fundamentally change decades of image-making on Madison Avenue,” proclaimed an article in the New York Times in 2005 that noted some brands were following Dove’s inclusive lead. “But that is a big if indeed.”

One brand that didn’t waver is Dove itself, which has been iterating the campaign ever since and is marking the 20th anniversary with a look back, and a look forward.

Keep reading here.—AAN

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Mark Johnson worked across wholesale grocery at companies like UNFI and C&S Wholesale Grocers before joining ReposiTrak last year, working with companies like Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize on regulatory compliance.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I work behind the scenes ensuring retailers, distributors, and manufacturers minimize risk by keeping food safety and other regulatory documents in compliance. The boring/mundane stuff nobody wants to think about—not sexy, but super-duper important.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I love hockey and played 14 years of Beer League ice hockey.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? The acquisition of a $1 billion company into a $3 billion company and the integration of personnel, systems, and processes without suffering more than 5% acquired employee attrition.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? Bringing AI decision-making to ease shopping pains.

Keep reading here.—EC

Instructions included. Have you ever assembled a piece of IKEA’s famous furniture? Now you can learn how they build their global marketing campaign blueprint in a conversation with IKEA Product Director Marcel Duy and Uptempo. Learn how streamlined processes led to 180,000 aligned employees, saved 124,000 hours of time, and boosted ROI. Watch here.