Bacchus Capital Management, a San Francisco-based private equity firm providing capital in the wine industry, has provided growth capital to Maritime Wine Trading Collective, a boutique wine import, production, and distribution company based in San Francisco.
Concurrent with the Bacchus investment, Maritime is adding Nine North Brands to its portfolio. Nine North is a Stag’s Leap District-based collection of handcrafted Napa and North Coast red wines.
"The Bacchus growth capital provides Maritime with the platform to build infrastructure and to continue to grow our portfolio brands’ distribution and volume in the US," says Chris Nickolopoulos, Maritime chief executive, who co-founded the venture in 2009 with Elijah Pfister. "The opportunity to partner with Bacchus’ team gives us the operational experience and the resources we need to grow our business. Maritime is dedicated to bringing to market a unique collection of critically acclaimed, artisanal and value-driven wines from around the world. Our proposition as an importer and production company, as well as a sales and marketing agent, is increasingly valuable on the wine landscape."
"The Bacchus/Maritime partnership illustrates the opportunity we can provide to partner with sound wine businesses in need of capital today, a groundbreaking opportunity that traditional sources in the wine space cannot provide," says Peter Kaufman (pictured), co-founder and managing partner at Bacchus. "Our portfolio companies benefit from our unique proposition: pairing our flexible capital and deep understanding of the wine business with their vision and reputation, which is a win-win for everyone. We look forward to a very successful partnership with Chris and Elijah. We are refining a model in the industry, and that model is proving itself to be a winner."
