DRINKLY DOUBLES WORKFORCE TO DRIVE AMBITIOUS GROWTH PLANS
Four months since Drinkly announced a swathe of appointments to its management team, the tech start-up has doubled its workforce with the recruitment of a Director of Business Operations and a Brand Partnerships Manager to drive ambitious growth plans.
The Edinburgh-based ‘on demand’ drinks delivery service, which has operated in the capital since 2016 and Glasgow since December 2018, is planning an imminent move into West London, the first of eight city launches planned for 2019.
Glen Stocco, Director of Business Operations
As an engineering graduate, Glen started his career in professional services. After obtaining his MBA and consulting for a top bank in Luxembourg, he returned to consulting briefly before moving into property development as Director of Development for a premier real estate and asset management firm. During this time, Glen also acted as ambassador for a Canadian economic development agency, where he helped foster international business partnerships in Edinburgh and Sweden. After six years in real estate development, Glen ventured into drinks, taking on the role of President for a growing craft cider company in Canada. Before joining Drinkly, he was an advisor and mentor for Scottish companies exploring foreign markets and an assessor for Scottish Edge. As Director of Business Operations, Glen will focus on structuring the company for growth, overseeing legal and tech developments, as well as leading on strategy, financial planning and forecasting.
John Robertson, founder and CEO of Drinkly, said: “Glen is an operational leader with a proven track record working with founders and CEO’s driving business transformation and growth whilst also ensuring robust processes, systems and governance. He has a good knowledge of a broad range of functions including finance, HR, legal, operations, and sales, and brings a track record of stakeholder management and negotiation across multiple sectors.”
Jill Davidson, Brand Partnerships Manager
Before joining Drinkly, Jill was Partnerships Manager at Edinburgh Rugby; in three years, she helped enhance the sponsorship revenue by 60% on the back of a commercial strategy she developed to improve acquisition and retention. Key successes included the on-boarding of high-profile sponsors including Miller Homes and Principal & Prosper. Prior to that Jill was Commercial Account Manager at Scottish Rugby, where she managed the governing body’s key sponsors. After graduating with an MA in Business Studies, Jill joined the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, becoming Head of Events between 2008 and 2012. Here Jill orchestrated flagship events for the organisation including the inaugural Business Awards and the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference, at which former VP Al Gore was a keynote speaker.
As Brand Partnerships Manager, Jill will lead efforts on expanding Drinkly’s affiliate network through the delivery of tailored partnership agreements as well as optimising Drinkly’s existing brand associations.
John Robertson added: “Jill certainly knows how to drive best value when it comes to getting the most out of brand relationships. We have already fostered strong reciprocal partnerships with some stellar brands including Asahi UK and Heineken and it’s an area we want to invest in because it offers Drinkly a point of difference, by giving both customers and brands a value-added experience.”
Founded in November 2016, Drinkly is a technology platform that allows customers to shop over 650 products across beers, wines and spirits from local off-licence partners and have them delivered to homes, offices or friends in one hour. In two years the business has created partnerships with Heineken and other independent craft brands, accrued over 3,000 regular customers in Edinburgh and expanded its services into Glasgow, accruing over 500 customers in the first three months. Turnover in the first year stood at £55,000, with Y2 turnover expected to hit £1M through expansion into other cities. £300,000 in seed investment came in two rounds from Seed Haus Scotland’s most selective technology incubator backed by James Watt (BrewDog), Rob Dobson (Prolific Technology Entrepreneur), Judy Wilson, Robin Knox (iPOS/iZettle), Paul Walton (iPOS/iZettle), Sir Tom Hunter, Paul Davidson (West Coast Capital), Chris Van Der Kuyl (4J Studios), Paddy Burns (4J Studios) and Alistair Forbes (Mercia Technologies).