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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

drink robot

Bartesian Brings Its Cocktail Robot to Williams-Sonoma & Macy’s

Home robot bartender Bartesian has made the (retail) big time.

According to a release sent to The Spoon, the long-time maker of countertop cocktail makers has announced that its machines are now available at Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s.

Bartesian, which shipped its first machine in 2019 after years of development, has seen a 300% increase in revenue in 2021, which follows a nearly 10x increase in sales in 2020 over the previous year. While the company saw its growth accelerate in 2020 with bars closed due to COVID, its fast growth predated the pandemic, according to company CEO Ryan Close.

From our post in April about Bartesian’s $21 million funding round:

Close said that while his company did get a COVID bump, it was already experiencing triple growth rates prior to the pandemic (they got off to a nice start by being an Oprah pick in the winter of 2019). Close said that the company has generated more sales in the first quarter of 2021 than during the first half of 2020.

Bartesian’s growth stands in contrast to the rough-sailing experienced by others in the home booze appliance business. Somabar, which saw early adulation at CES for its home cocktail bot, has struggled to fulfill its Kickstarter commitments. Barsys suffered early negative reviews for its cocktail robot and has recently emphasized its smart coaster.

Bartesian’s success is perhaps a validation of the company’s early strategy of partnering with larger companies such as Hamilton Beach (for manufacturing) and Beam to gain access to channels and resources in a business. It also was the first home booze-bot maker to build a business around a consumables with its pods, ensuring recurring revenue beyond the initial hardware sale.

Since its launch, Bartesian has witnessed other pod-based drink systems come to market. Drinkworks, the joint venture between Dr. Pepper/Keurig and AB InBev, continues to roll out new cocktail-related partnerships and products as it expands into new states. European startup Smart Spirits is trying to convince folks to use pods to create base-liquor drinks like gin or whiskey.

But now, with its entrance into Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s, Bartesian hopes to gain a leg up on the competition. By securing prime brick & mortar real retail real estate to sell to customers who still buy things brick & mortar retail, the company looks like it may be positioning itself as the market leader in the still-nascent but fast-growing home cocktail-making appliance business.

Bartesian, a Home Cocktail Robot, is Now on Sale in Over 250 Retail Locations

If you’re still looking for that holiday gift for the cocktail fanatic in your life who has everything, you might want to run down to Best Buy (or Dillards or Bed Bath & Beyond) and pick up a Bartesian.

That’s because over the past few months, the home cocktail robot has started to roll out across the U.S. at a number of different retailers. According to company CEO Ryan Close, the Bartesian is now available at over 250 retail locations across the nation, including Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Beth Bath and Beyond, and Dillards.

The Bartesian, which makes a variety of cocktails using a proprietary capsule system to add in bitters, fruit juice and other mixers to the user-provided spirits, started shipping online earlier this year. According to Close, retail has always been part of the plan.

“5 years (!) of talking about one day being on the shelves of #BedBathandBeyond …here it is,” wrote Close on Linkedin announcing the company’s latest retail rollout.

Bartesian CEO Ryan Close at Bed Bath & Beyond

Close told me via Linkedin that while the company is launching its product in different locations across the U.S., they are primarily focused on higher-density markets like New York, Chicago and cities in California, to maximize awareness.

I’m curious to see how the Bartesian performs at retail. One potential sticking point for consumers is the need to buy capsules from Bartesian to make cocktails with the machine. The capsules, which include fresh ingredients such as fruit juice, are not cheap, selling in packs of six for $15. That’s about two and a half bucks per drink (before alcohol), which is certainly cheaper than a bar but pretty spendy for home cocktails.

However, while consumers have shown a reluctance to use proprietary pod systems outside of coffee, Bartesian isn’t the only company betting that home-based cocktails might be the next market to break open new capsule category. Drinkworks, the joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch, has rolled out to select markets in the U.S. Unlike the Bartesian, however, Drinkworks pods include alcohol.

The Bartesian, which launched over five years ago on Kickstarter, now faces a more crowded market than when it first launched. In addition to Drinkworks, Barsys has begun to ship its second generation bartender bot while newer upstarts like MyBar and SirMixaBot (best name ever) have started to make their way to market.