Back when Mr D was still just a menu on your fridge and long before Uber Eats, Vincent Viviers and Enrico Ferigolli spotted a gap in the South African retail space, the need for an app-based ondemand delivery service.

The idea for Bottles came about in 2015 when the founders were at a braai, ran out of drinks and didn’t want to risk driving out for more. “Who wouldn’t want to click a button and get booze delivered to their door?!” Viviers asks rhetorically. “One of our founding principles was to keep people from drinking and driving,” he adds. Fast forward to March 2020, with a nearly three-month alcohol ban and the company faced the very real threat of closure.