IWSR, one of the world’s leading sources of alcohol consumption insights, has been acquired by consumer trend forecaster WGSN. The deal sees IWSR change hands from Bowmark Capital, the private equity firm that acquired the business in 2021, to WGSN, itself backed by funds advised by Apax Partners.

Though financial terms remain undisclosed, the significance of this acquisition lies less in numbers and more in the marrying of two complementary capabilities: IWSR’s granular lens on the alcohol sector and WGSN’s broader consumer trend expertise. Or, as WGSN’s chief executive Carla Buzasi put it, the aim is to “illustrate the transformative power unleashed when data science and human expertise are combined.”