AB InBev’s latest acquisition isn’t a U.S. or international craft brewery, for once—it’s one of the U.K.’s largest online whiskey retailers. According to Forbes, global mega-giant alcohol consortium AB InBev has purchased U.K.-based The Atom Group for an undisclosed sum. The Atom Group is the parent company of three separate whiskey companies—bottler Boutique-y Whisky, distributor Maverick Drinks and online whiskey retailer Master of Malt. The purchase was conducted through AB InBev’s “disruptive growth” arm, ZX Ventures, the same company that purchased the Northern Brewer homebrewing supply website in the U.S., along with a minority stake in beer rating site RateBeer.
Of the three, the crown jewel is Master of Malt, a vendor that sells a variety of whiskey (with an emphasis on U.K. products) to customers all over the globe. That globe just got a bit smaller, however—as a result of their new ownership, Master of Malt will no longer be able to ship whiskey to the U.S. This is of course an outcome of the U.S. three tier system of alcohol distribution, which will prevent the AB InBev-owned company from also functioning as a distributor in the U.S. For the consumer, it means reduced access to U.K. spirits, although competitor sites such as The Whisky Exchange will surely be attempting to capitalize on the opportunity by filling the niche.