Changing an industry that claims to be several thousand years old may be no simple task, but with the growth of Zipz, a portable, single-serve wine product, Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary and Zachys’ Andrew McMurray have made major strides in revamping America’s wine game. This Tuesday, ABC’s Beyond The Tank will follow up on the progress of O’Leary’s $2.5 million dollar investment, from the sixth season of Shark Tank, into McMurray’s state-of-the-art single serve wine product.
In tomorrow night’s episode, you will have the chance to see what unfolds after the heated haggling that often erupts in Shark Tank. What we’ve been told is limited—O’Leary sets up a meeting with a “hospitality giant” and McMurray must find someone who can “produce a high volume of wine in the Zipz cups”—making us all the more excited to see what has become of 914INC.’s very own Entrepreneur of the Year since his appearance on the show.
“We dive very deep into the individual aspects of the deal,” says O’Leary. “The good, the bad, the ugly. The successes and failures. Everything is all there, it’s very interesting.”
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Even more, Shark Tank fans will get to see how the relationship between investors and entrepreneurs evolves after agreeing to a deal. Following the tense 13-minute interrogation of McMurray in the “tank”, the Scarsdale entrepreneur and O’Leary now appear to be forming a very lucrative business relationship, both being lovers of the wine business.
“[O’Leary] is an interesting guy. He has an on-camera persona and an off-camera personality, they’re very different,” says McMurray. “He’s going to come across as this hard, tough guy, but he understands that the wine business is challenging.”
What, at the time, seemed like a risky, record-breaking Shark Tank investment, has boosted Zipz to the level of award-winning recognition and helped to revolutionize the ready-to-drink cocktail category. The single-serving plastic wine glasses started making an appearance at Major League baseball stadiums back in 2013, and in the coming years McMurray hopes to see Zipz become for wine what the aluminum can is for beer.
“Wine is so complimentary to the food industry. So many more people, younger generations, are drinking wine,” says McMurray. “Now all of a sudden, people can drink single servings anywhere. It’s a cool thing. And at the end of the day when wine catches up [to beer] it’s going to be amazing.”
Watch McMurray on Beyond The Tank this Tuesday, April 12, at 10 pm.
Related: Westchester Magazine’s Wine & Food Festival
