The most important step before making any serious decisions is to prepare a beverage company business plan. The business plan preparation will help you to have a better picture where you are going, what you want to reach and how you will reach it.

Moreover, beverage business plan is a document which you will be introducing to your potential investors, so it is important to do your homework and do it in a right manner. You have to show that you understand the topic and have a clear strategy to reach your goals.

Let’s start with the structure of your business plan. There is no ideal structure, however, in the majority of cases it includes these elements:

1. Executive Summary
2. Business Overview
   1. Business History
   2. Vision and/or Mission
   3. Objectives
   4. Ownership Structure
   5. People Involved
3. Industry Overview
4. Marketing Strategy
5. Operational Plan
6. Financial Planing
7. Timeline

Executive Summary

Executive summary shouldn’t be longer than one page. It’s a short introduction of your business idea (product offering, target market, unique selling proposition), business concept, key objectives of your business plan, ownership structure and management team.

Actually, Executive Summary should be written last, after you’ve written the rest of your beverage business plan. So don’t hurry with it.

Business Overview

Introduce your business history, if it’s a startup then talk more about your team and your experience. Your business vision and mission. Be really clear about that, it’s very important to understand where you want to go. Especially if you are planning to introduce your business plan to the investor. They have to understand your business objectives and goals. Then it will be easier for them to build a full picture.

Industry Overview

The industry overview is your opportunity to demonstrate industry know-how. You need to introduce the current market situation, size and growth rate of your industry. You need to identify where is actually the opportunity in your market and discuss it. Which market will you be targeting and why? Why do you believe there is an opportunity?

Marketing Strategy

Here you describe your target market segments, your competition, your differentiation (USP) and your strategy. Usually, our list includes these topics

• Target consumer analysis and Consumer profile. Who is buying your product?
• Strategic Positioning, USP. Why your product should be bought? Why it‘s unique?
• Marketing Goals & Objectives, Expected results
• Marketing Mix
• Trade Marketing
• Promotional Strategic & Operational plan
• Communication planning
• Evaluation / Measurement

This is the most important part of your beverage business plan. You have to show that you know who is your consumer and you know how you will be selling your product to him.

Operational Plan

You need to provide a detailed plan which will show how your business will be managed on daily basis. It should include your human resource plan, business location and facilities, production plan etc.

• Human Resource Plan. What team members you will require? What expertise do you need? Who will do what?
• Business Location and Facilities. Where do you plan to produce your product? Where you administration is located?
• Supply and Inventory Management. Who will your suppliers be? Are you buying raw material separately and delivering to the factory, or are you buying a final product from a manufacturer? Where will you store your product? What are the payment terms?
• Production and Distribution. Do you plan to outsource manufacturing, build your own facilities or buy a beverage manufacturer? What type of machinery do you need? What beverage manufacturing technology are you planning to use?

Financial Planning

Some believe it’s the most important section of your business plan, especially investors. So you shouldn’t look carelessly to it.

You need to show at least three years worth of financial statements which will include income statements, balance sheets, monthly/yearly cash flow statements.

To sum up, it’s not a short or easy process. Sometimes companies are hiring professionals to do it for them. Obviously, you can hire MyDrink and we’ll guide you from A to Z. But it might be even more useful if you can do it yourself.

Good luck!

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog.

It’s amazing how sometimes you can believe your idea so much that you forget to answer such basic questions as “Are there any buyers for my product?”

Every month we meet hundreds of entrepreneurs who are interested in launching their beverage startup. We start talking with them and sooner or later we find something that is obvious to us, but not to them.

For example, someone talked with his grandmother and she told him that his idea was great and that he should pursue it. Or, someone saw that Red Bull was a successful business, so they wanted to launch a similar product and fight Red Bull.

No, you shouldn’t. Don’t do it. You will waste your life savings and a ton of time; moreover, you will not succeed.

To make your life easier (and ours as well) I combined a list of things you should consider before launching a beverage company. If some of these fit cyou, then you shouldn’t start a beverage company.

“I don’t have any budget. But I believe that once I share my idea with the investors they will understand this opportunity.”

It’s amazing how many people believe that you can launch a business without any initial investment. There is one essential thing you need to consider before approaching investors with only your idea. Why should an investor believe in your idea when you haven’t invested your money into it? You must show your commitment to your idea; moreover, you must show proof of concept. Idea is nothing – execution is everything.

Remember, people invest money to make more money, so they evaluate every opportunity on many different levels: what is the product? Does that product has a potential to scale up?  Who are the people behind the business? Are they capable to build that business? Do they have the know-how of beverage industry? They are not looking for ideas, they are looking for business opportunities.

“I want to outsource everything from A to Z. I also plan to have a full-time job, so I will need you to do the management as well.”

I love this one. Yes, we can help you from A to Z, but how can you expect to build a business and have a full-time job at the same time? Entrepreneurship is a full-time job with all the advantages and disadvantages. If you don’t want to get your feet wet, then don’t start a beverage business.

“I gave a few samples of my drink to my mother and two friends. All of them loved it. I think this drink can be a huge hit!”

Actually, this is not so bad. You have already done some market intelligence and received good feedback. However, I don’t think it’s enough. You need to do your homework and get better feedback from the market. Is there the possibility to do a focus group or larger testing with people from the street? Think about it creatively and don’t be limited by common knowledge. Tear down the walls. You need to be sure that people like the product. By having this answer you will feel more confident, which is huge.

“I know how to make a better tasting energy drink than Red Bull. I want to launch an energy drink brand and take Red Bull’s market share. They don’t have a chance.”

Yes, we many other companies know how to make a better tasting energy drink than Red Bull. It’s not only about flavor of the product. Never were…

“In my company I was doing sales, but at the same time I was responsible for launching a website and preparing brochures for exhibitions. So thanks, but I don’t need a Beverage Marketing Services. I know marketing quite well.”

If you believe that you only need “good packaging design” to succeed, then I will save you some time and money. No, packaging design is not enough. You need to have the full package, which includes your business strategy, tactics, brand, tone of voice, communication strategy, etc. If you plan to talk with investors and approach them with only packaging design and without any clear strategy – you will fail. Be well prepared. Do your homework. Understand your consumer.

“I have noticed there are no similar products on the market. I want to launch as soon as possible, as it’s a huge opportunity.”

This one is tricky and you should approach it very carefully. In most cases you are not the smartest guy in town and there are already people who have thought about this idea. Before you launch you need to find answers to these questions: Why there are no similar products on the market? Is there a market for this product? Is it a good time to launch this product? Did anyone tried to launch it before and failed? If so, why?

I think I have touched on only a few of these ideas. However, the main goal of this article is to show one important thing: you must think very seriously before entering the beverage business (or any business). You need to do your homework and be well prepared. Is there the possibility of hiring professionals for hand holding? If not – try to gather as much information as possible before making a huge commitment to this venture, which will require huge amounts of time, energy, and investment.

Believe in what you do!

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog.

In general, it is a very early stage for beverage ecommerce in Europe. The main problem is logistic cost. Until it is not fully solved – beverage industry is stuck in the middle ages. Due to this fact, I would be very careful with beverage ecommerce. For the moment, it is only as an extra sales channel.

Beverage co-packers are not accustomed to drop shipping. I believe there is no economic logic for them to start this as an additional activity. Co-packers are interested in the production of bigger quantities and selling them at once. However, as an alternative you can use order fulfillment companies for that.

To sum up, I believe that now online sales can be as an extra sales channel for beverage brands. Eventually it will grow bigger, however, on-trade/off-trade is still king of the town.

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the eBev Europe conference. It was the first event organized in Europe as these events have mainly taken place in the USA. The main topic of the conference was digital disruption in the beverage industry.

And it was great! The key speakers were industry professionals who shared their brand stories and lessons learned. I made a short summary of the main ideas that seemed the most interesting. Check them out:

It’s all about consumer experience marketing… Nowadays, huge amounts of money are being spent toward product experience. If you are a brand owner, how do you create product/brand experience for your product? Transform your bottle and packaging in genuine touch points for brand experience and discovery.

If you go digital, you go all in… It seemed very strange to hear that the big guys are only starting to discover the advantages of digital marketing. Marketing managers are still struggling to prove to their managers that there is an alternative to television advertising. However, they are already taking the first steps (very big ones) and discovering that digital marketing is a valuable tool for their brand communication. Digital marketing budgets are increasing, which is a sign that soon it will not be only startups and SMEs playing in this field.

DORITOS BATTLE VIDEO

Unilever is betting that Direct-To-Consumer is the next big thing… Big guys are researching the ways they can communicate and sell directly to consumers. The main goal is to understand how to reach consumers directly. Their first testing project was launched in France T.O. Lipton. Check it out here.
By the way, Unilever also believes in the importance of personalization and subscription trends.

Use Big Data to determine consumer trends… Finally, the impact of big data was acknowledged. It seems that more and more companies are using data to analyze consumer trends. Big data becomes a huge competitive advantage for companies who are trying to understand their consumers.

Generation Z (births starting 1995) will change the world… These people do not know a world without technology. For them, it’s a different world than for earlier generations. These are different consumers for which we need to be prepared.

To sum up, digital disruption is already happening in the beverage industry. Technology is changing how brands are communicating with consumers. Technology enables brand owners to better understand these consumers and to try to predict the future accordingly. Those who are not playing this game will just be crushed

Our main goal is to introduce new beverage products from around the world!

We‘ve reached a point when we understood that we can create additional value for the industry by helping beverage startups to spread the word about their products. Due to this next month we are launching first new product launch platform which is dedicated entirely to beverage industry – DrinkPreneur Launchpad.

What is DrinkPreneur Launchpad?

It‘s a unique platform where beverage startups will be capable to launch their new products and introduce it to distributors, retailers, traders, agents, investors and even directly to consumers.

Value of DrinkPreneur Launchpad

• Global promotion of new startup products;
• Exclusive pricing offers for 2-4 weeks during product introduction campaign;
• Global delivery of products;
• Education about the concept/product/team/goals etc;

Benefits for a startup to launch their product on DrinkPreneur Launchpad:

• DP Lauchpad Audience B2B2C (agents, distributors, traders, retailers, wholesalers, multinational corp., investors, HoReCa channel owners and beverage lovers/fans);
• Customers and consumers feedback about the product;
• Spread the word about their new product launch;
• Get feedback from industry members;
• Speed up their product launch internationally;

Benefits for our drinkpreneur audience:

• Feel the pulse of the market regarding new product launches;
• Get exclusive pricing offers for new product testing;
• Try out those new products by themselves;
• Find interesting products for distribution;

DrinkPreneur Launchpad solves one of the main pain points that beverage startups are facing.. Slow and unsuccessful new product introduction campaigns.

Do you want to be notified when we will launch DrinkPreneur Launchpad? Register here.

Original the article was published here: Global New Beverage Products Marketplace.

Every year, Brand Finance, a consulting company, creates a „Global 500“ list, its estimation of the world‘s 500 most valuable brands. A brand’s value is calculated by multiplying a brand’s strength index (BSI composites from investment, equity and performance of the brand), by an individual brand’s strength and a forecast of the brand‘s future revenues. Brand Finance has already released its most valuable brands list for 2016. Among 500 brands, there are 10  from the  beverage industry. Let me introduce you to those 10 top beverages of 2016.

1. Coca-Cola 

The company is celebrating its 130th birthday this year. Despite that, the brand’s value in 2016 fell 5%, which led it rank in 17th place. Last year it  was listed in–12th place. So, what happened? Consumers are looking for natural, healthier drinks, which is the reason why Coca-Cola sales are decreasing. Even though among cola drinks, Coca-Cola will probably always be a number one brand, consumers are searching for less sugar and more natural drinks. Company focus on young, creative audience encouraging their feelings and spreading the love.

2. PepsiCo

In 1893 Caleb Bradham challenged Coke and released its own cola brand. Due to the same trends that led Coca-Cola’s brand value to decline,  Pepsi dropped from 41st place in 2015 to 56th position this year.  PepsiCo‘s brand value declined 11%, which is more than double Coca-Cola‘s annual decline. It’s easy to notice that public image of the company centers on mega stars. It seems that Pepsi is still focused on attracting consumers who follow the latest trends, and fashion and are seeking to be more like their favorite celebrities.

3. Red Bull

The value of the Austrian brand created in 1987 declined by 38 places,  landing at 211th place this year. Due to public health concerns, energy drinks have been losing their popularity year by year. Over the years Red Bull has released 13 different flavors to satisfy any consumer‘s needs. One of biggest steps for the company has been the release of a sugar-free energy drink, which reflected the company’s concerns and desire to keep its  target market healthier. One thing for sure, you can disagree about energy drinks‘ benefits and damage to the human body, but encouraging customers to choose an active lifestyle is one of the strongest brands sides.

4. Bud Light

In 1982 Bud Light was introduced to consumers under Budweiser’s flag. Like   many beverage products that lost their places in 2016, Bud Light wasn’t an exception. Its brand value  fell from 270th to 287th place. Bud Light was known as a laughingstock of the beer industry for many years. It seems next year we can expect an upswing in its ranking due to huge changes in marketing strategy. Along with Amy Schumer, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Ronda Rousey, it seems Bud Light is ready to sponsor the biggest party of 2016.

5. Johnnie Walker

In 2020 the brand will be celebrating its 200th birthday.  With nine different standard blends, the brand‘s value unfortunately fell from 254th place in 2015 to 315th place. It’s the biggest decline among all 10 beverage brands among the Global 500 Brands list. Johnnie Walker is the only strong alcoholic beverage brand which managed to be on the list this year. Despite the decline, the company‘s marketing strategy is still spreading the joy of living the life ahead with advertisements featuring actor Jude Law.

6. Budweiser

The main advantage, which is obvious when talking about the Budweiser brand, is heritage. A German immigrant, Adolphus Busch introduced Budweiser to American in 1876. Ever since, the brand has been strong, huge and, most importantly, still made in USA. Due to loyalty and great taste, Budweiser is still a favorite beer brand in the United States. It’s the rare beverage brand that managed to rise in the list, from 350th to 326th place this year. Last month Budweiser release its newest commercial, once again declaring its size, locality and strength.

7. Heineken

Like Budweiser, Heineken‘s rank also rose this year: from 358th to 342nd place.  Right now, Heineken can be found in 192 countries, which suggests the popularity of this brand worldwide. The Heineken brand always has made snappy commercials, which make us laugh, smile and think about good times we spend with our friends. In 2016 Heineken started a new era of marketing by declaring that a true man, ,,a hero”, is a moderate drinker. Changing the strategy without changing the taste may accelerate the brand‘s value growth even more.

8. Gatorade

It’s the only sport drink brand with a value high enough to be among the other 499 global brands. Moreover, Gatorade manage to climb the chart, from 397th place in 2015 to 374th this year. Owned by PepsiCo., Gatorade has been on the market since 1965. It’s one of the most famous sports drink in the world and can be found in 80 countries. Gatorade promotes an active lifestyle and especially is intended to fulfill the expectations of athletes and other sports players.

9. Sprite

Sprite has been a soft drink that always promotes itself as the first weapon fighting the thirst. The  brand’s image is starting to crumble, however, because its brand value dropped more than 29 rank points this year. 2016 pushed the Sprite brand into 411th place; that means that the brand should step up its game. Compared to others brands listed in the Global 500 brands value list, Sprite is one of the youngest brands with a high potential to climb up again. This month Sprite began its new campaign, encouraging people to define themselves and make their own way in life. Among the brave people who made their way up, there is Chantelle Winnie, Eddie Huang and Vince Staple. We can only guess whether this will be enough to recover the brand’s value in 2017.

10. Fanta

It’s the only beverage brand which hasn’t changed its position (488 place) in the 2016 Global Brands list. It’s surprising how Fanta managed to keep its value, even after huge mistakes such as omitting  Israel from its website map of national markets — despite listing the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, it’s the second time Fanta committed the same mistake since 2013. Although the company hasn’t run big commercial campaigns in recent years, it seems that whatever it is doing, it must be right.

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog.

For those who are struggling to find venture capital funds who are investing in Food and Beverage industry we prepared a small list. Yes, it’s not a full global list of Food and Beverage VCs. Please drop us a comment if you think we should add something in to this list. I hope it will grow organically!

Enjoy!

1. First Beverage Group – company is based in Los Angeles and are successfully working since 2005. Company has some requiremnts for clients. First of all, revenues has to be of $1 million to $10 million, strong and sustainable gross margins and business related to beverage industry. Company is ready to invest between $1 million and $10 million. First Beverage Group already made some successful investments into such project like Project Juice, Essentia and Drizly. Company, which requires for investment has to be based in United States.

2. Khosla Ventures – mainly invest into technology and innovative projects. Company takes serious measurement before making investment decision. Khosla has two different funds: seeds and main fund. First fund is suitable for innovative, crazy ideas which probably will work in the future. Second one, is for ideas with lower risk which can be divided by investors and start-ups.

3. 21 Investors – company is based in Italy and has been investing since 1992. Company has made over 80 investments in France, Italy and Poland. Even though, company is based in Europe, they work worldwide. Today, 21 Investors are investing into companies with an EV € M 50 – 200.

4. Sherbrooke Capital – established in 1999 in United States. Venture Capital Company invest only in companies who are already producing products or suppling their services. Usually, Sherbrooke Capital invests into companies with $5mm – $25mm in revenues and will invest up to $10mm in a given company. Sherbrooke Capital targets companies working in market like Healthy Food and Beverage, Animal Care Products, Green Living and others.

5. Winklevoss Capital – provide guidance, relationships and capital for start-ups and middle size companies. Company finds business itself, which means getting an investment is pretty hard from Winklevoss Capital. Company has invested in such project like Partender, Rise Coffee, Minibar and many other successful ideas.

6. Verlinvest – company are looking for possible investments into private and public companies from €25M to €100M (with the capacity to access and deploy higher amounts). It has no difference nor is the stake minority or majority. Verlinvest has already supported such projects like Sula, Viva Coco, Sambazon and others. Although, company is based in Europe, it works all over the world.

7. 2X Partners – company focus on food, beverage, personal care, home care, pet care and other industry investments. Investors only invest into companies with $1mm – $15mm revenue range. Company is based in Chicago, United States.

8. Inventages – is one of the world’s largest life-sciences, nutrition and wellness focused venture capital fund managers. This venture capital is perfect for start-ups with healthy beverage ideas. Among many projects there are these beverage products like Steaz, XO and others.

9. Unilever Ventures – well known venture capital company focused on young and promising companies. Besides such well-known brands like Lumene, Unilever Ventures has been invested in such projects like froosh and SoBe V-Water. As company states in its’ website, they only invest into those projects which they are sure team can deliver outstanding results.

10. Gastro Ventures – focus on “high-touch” food and beverage opportunities that fall outside the target of traditional investment models. Early stage specialty food companies are in a highly inefficient market for funding – falling in the gap between venture and growth equity. Criteria: revenuer between $100K – $5M, compelling health or/and functional benefits, history of attractive growth rates and others.

11. Great Oaks – is based in New York and is one of the most active Seed investors. Typically, they invest between $50,000 and $500,000 in Seed or Series A financings. Great Oaks seeks for earliest stage companies working in technology, health and care, food and beverage industry. Company has made more than 200 investments since 2005.

12. Tate & Lyle Ventures LP – company is looking for business working with technology in Food and Beverage industry. Tate & Lyle Venture LP capital company is ready to invest £1-2M as a first commitment to a company anticipating a similar amount in follow on investment. Fund was launched in 2006 and ever since is working all around the globe.

13. Seventure – company was established in 1997 France. They already invested more than € 500 million in Europe. Seventure invests in European start-ups with high growth potential, with an amount of investment from 0.5 million euros up to 20 millions euros per firm from seed to later stage rounds.

14. Pejmanmar – has been investing for more than 15 years. Company has a summer founders program, which is created for Stanford students to pursue their start-up ideas. Pejmanmar is ready to award $250k for 10% of the company via equity seed financing. Venture Capital invest only in United States and takes very serious look at students ideas.

15. JMK Consumer Growth Partners – makes growth capital investments in branded consumer businesses which operate in the areas of food, beverage, beauty & personal care, and fashion & luxury which have revenues of $2mm to $15mm and seek capital from $1mm to $5mm.

16. Encore Consumer Capital – a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm focused on the consumer products industry. The firm has raised nearly $400 million in equity capital and invested in sixteen companies, since 2005. The firm targets companies with between $10 million and $100 million in annual revenues.

17. Coca-Cola Venture (VEB) – identifying high-potential growth brands in the North American beverage space for investment or ownership by The Coca-Cola Company. Since its inception, VEB has managed investments and acquisitions in such brands as Honest Tea and Fuze, and the commercialization of illy issimo ready to drink coffee.

18. Catterton – is a leading consumer-focused private equity firm in North America with $2.5 billion under management and one of the strongest private equity investment track records in the middle market consumer industry. Catterton Partners invests in all major consumer segments, including Food and Beverage, Retail and Restaurants, Consumer Products and Services, and Media and Marketing Services.

19. ACG Investors – (ACG) is a private equity fund which provides growth capital and value-added partnership to the most promising young consumer, retail and restaurant brands. ACG invests in differentiated, high-growth companies with at least $5 million in annual sales that are seeking $2 million to $10 million of minority growth capital.  They have already made investments into beverage products like Suja Juice.

20. Next Level Venture – invests in growing companies that are based in Iowa. They typically invest $1 million to $4 million for a minority ownership position in later-stage venture situations. Next Level Venture is looking for Iowa companies with big opportunities.

21. Distill Ventures – company already invested into more than 10 beverage projects since 2013. Distill Venture invests only into alcoholic drinks of all types, except beer and wine. Companys investments so far have ranged in size from £175k to over £10m. Among projects they already invested in there are these like Stauning, Starward and others.

22. Lion Capital – a global business, with a focus on Europe and North America. Venture Capital Company already invested into these beverage projects: Russian Alcohol Group, Orangina Schweppes. Company has already invested into more than 100 unique consumers brands.

23. Demeter Group – has deep experience in Beverage Alcohol and Beauty with premium brands utilizing innovation to transform large categories. Provide Growth Capital for premium Beverage Alcohol brands in the U.S. with $5 – $25 million minority stake investments. Demeter Group had been working with these brands: Cuvee 20, Benzinger, Mark West and others.

24. Invenfin – focus is equity funding of businesses that have evolved well beyond the seed or start-up stage, with high growth potential, typically achieved through scaling internationally. Within theur multi-sector mandate Invenfin has identified Food and Beverages as one of their key focus areas.

25. YelloStone Capital – a Houston-based, private investment company and family office focused on acquiring and/or investing in small-to-medium sized businesses in the following sectors: Energy, Power, Industrial and Water, Branded Food & Beverage, Energy Technology and Life Sciences. Venture Capital requires a minimum of $10 million in revenues for stand-alone acquisitions.

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog.

A huge variety of different beverage products reach the market every year. Some of them are copies of well-known products, while others are unique products, but all are created to attract a target market. MyDrink Beverages sure had some memorable projects regarding the unique qualities of their created products. One such product was a cinnamon soft drink called Cinnamora. Today, I have a pleasure to talk to Mr. Skanda Wijeyekoon, founder and owner of Cinnamora.

Starting a beverage business can be a tough challenge. Can you please tell us how you came up with idea to start a beverage business? What are the main challenges that you’ve faced so far?

I researched natural products that could help with diabetes as I had an interest in this condition. I found a lot of research showing that cinnamon offered a potential benefit for better diabetic control and I wanted to give the public quick and easy access to cinnamon. I eventually decided on a cinnamon soft drink that we could make available on the shelf in every grocery and convenience store in the nation.

I had some difficulties trying to create a low calorie drink that mixed cinnamon with water. Ultimately, I contracted MyDrink Beverages to help with the recipe. They were able to come up with a cinnamon-based recipe that was both tasty and low in calories.

How did you come up to this innovative idea to use cinnamon as your main ingredient?

Research has shown that, among natural products, cinnamon had the most potential to improve diabetic control for people suffering from that disease. It is also a natural antioxidant and it has been shown to be effective in controlling cholesterol. Cinnamon also has a unique taste, so I realized that I had stumbled upon a spice that could potentially elicit a lot of demand.

Did you made any memorable mistakes along the way that you won’t be making next time? What’s next for Cinnamora?

We used sucralose which is an artificial sweetener, but it would have been preferable to use an all-natural product. Currently, we are working on changing the recipe to use a natural sweetener and possibly a Cinnamora plus alternative with a slightly higher cinnamon content. Cinnamora is designed for all cinnamon lovers and that segment of the public who want healthy, refreshing rehydration. Our goal is to make Cinnamora the next coconut water.

What other difficulties or challenges have you faced while attempting to get Cinnamora into the hands of its target market?

Cinnamora is a new concept. People are set in their ways and introducing something new is always a challenge. There are many ways to do this, but to choose the most efficient way on a tight budget is difficult.

As someone who had the courage to start a new beverage business, what advice could you give to people who are thinking of doing something similar?

Be ready to accept the fact that you are going to make a loss for the first few years and, in fact, you may still not succeed. The most important thing is to maintain an attitude that allows you to enjoy the journey and learn along the way. It’s equally as important to have a backup plan.

Cinnamora is a unique beverage with nothing close to its concept in the market. Are you planning to go international?

Our marketing efforts are currently focused on the local market, but we are not averse to expanding our reach across borders when the time is right.

Did you have any doubts about the success of Cinnamora as you moved through the various stages of developing this product?

Cinnamora is making progress, but it is still too early to call it a success. I always thought it was an interesting concept and the initial feedback has been positive. I cannot say that I am 100% sure about our future success, but I have a good feeling about this and I’m confident we’re going in the right direction.

For more information about Cinnamora visit their website.

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog.

It is a challenge to start your own beverage development project. MyDrink team knows how challenging and tough it can be. In order to help you out, last Thursday they held their first live webinar. In case, you did not have enough time or just did not knew about it, we wanna share with you a record of their webinar.

During this webinar you will learn:

1. Important aspects of beverage concept creation.

2. What are sensory properties of beverages, why they are important and how to evaluate them.

3. The main ingredient categories in beverage formulation.

4. What are the main issues that entrepreneur are facing during development and how to make beverage development process much easier and faster?

See below for full webinar:

We are working with various beverage consulting projects globally, however, sometimes we forget to ask our clients what they learn during the development stages of their products. Today I’m speaking with Founder and Co-Owner of  North Wine & Spirits Renate Nikolaisen about their beverage development project of natural alcohol cocktails.

Can you tell us more how did you come up with an idea to start beverage business? Did you have any experience about beverage industry before this project? Can you share this story with us?

The world is trending more and more towards natural foods, and in our home market, Norway, natural foods and light products are huge in all categories – except in the alcoholic category. We believed that this category was not following the innovations and trends we could see in other related food & beverage categories and wanted to do something about it. I started on the idea while studying business in the US, but was not old enough to drink alcohol at that time as I was under the age of 21. Developing an alcohol business while being underage wasn’t a recipe for success, so I had to wait with the founding of the company and the development of the products after returning home to Norway. Then I met Lisbeth (co-owner), who saw the same potential in the products and wanted to join in on the company. Together we’ve developed what came to be North Cocktails.

We had no experience at all about the beverage industry before this project, but that didn’t stop us. We were willing to learn along the process and believed in our idea for the products and that was what pushed us forward. We always knew that we could outsource whatever expertise we didn’t have, which actually led us to MyDrink.

Photo credit: Frida Xiang

Why alcohol? It’s a very difficult business. Consumers and retailers are usually very conservative, so they are not willing to try new brands. It might be very difficult and expensive to penetrate the market.

We saw a potential in a product that did not exist in the Norwegian market. Even though the alcohol business is challenging, we believe in North Cocktails and we know that the customers agree because it is the first product of its kind in the Norwegian market. With the natural ingredients and stevia as a sweetener we target a new group of customers who wants to have a better option when they drink alcohol.

In our case both the consumers and retailers in Norway have been very open minded and willing to try our product.

We see that there is a growing trend in Norway to eat/drink natural foods and a decreasing trend of using conservatives, so that’s probably why people have been so eager to try our products.

So once you decided to start alcohol brand what was your next step? Did you have a plan?

The very first thing we did after deciding to start an alcohol brand was to research the market and find a good partner to develop the recipes with. That was when we contacted MyDrink for help in the development process of the recipes.

We had written a business plan and were aware of the stages we had to go through, but we were not aware of the time it would take to go through them. So yes, we did have somewhat of a plan, but had to alter it along the way. Our vision was still clear though, we wanted to present a natural option in the ready-to-drink alcoholic market.

In the beginning the plan was to focus only on the cocktail collection and development of the North brand. Eventually, after discussions with our investors we decided that we were also going to import wine and spirits to supplement our own brand.

How MyDrink Beverages consultants added value during your beverage development process?

As we didn’t have any experience in beverage development at all, so MyDrink has been a very helpful. Especially since we are dealing with natural products their expertise in this area was very important to us.

We had a lot of questions about the process and the development stages and they always gave us the answers we needed. As well it was a very good experience for us to  visit the MyDrink office in Kaunas, Lithuania. This gave us a greater understanding of the process.

Did you make any mistakes during the road which you wouldn’t be making next time? What are they?

Yes of course. One of the biggest mistakes we made was not realizing how much time it all takes.  For example, we were using too much time to decide which flavors to go for. We knew we wanted to launch two flavors, but in the product development we worked with four to have some options if some failed. It turned out it was ups and downs with all flavors and they needed work before we got them as we wanted. If we had just chosen two flavors earlier in the process we could have saved a lot of time perfecting them instead of using time on the ones we did not launch. But the time wasn’t completely wasted because we are definitely planning on launching more flavors, and we now know that is takes time to develop the perfect recipe. We also had a lot of challenges choosing bottles as we wanted a specific design and that wasn’t easy to find because of the limitations we had in the production facilities. All measurements of the bottles needed to fit their machines. We should have researched this in more detail ahead of time.

Photo credit: Markus Andre Jensen

What’s next for North Wine & Spirits? What’s your final vision for this company?

Our vision is to be a market leader in our segment of natural alcoholic products, in Scandinavia first, but hopefully expanding to both the European and US markets.

We will keep focusing on natural flavors and stevia as a sweetener in our alcoholic products. We believe that stevia will become more popular to use in alcoholic beverage in the future, and we want to be leading the trend of this and of making alcoholic beverages more suitable to the modern consumers.

For the next steps we want to extend our White Cocktails Collection with more flavors. We also want to supply our brand with more products such as flavored vodka and organic wines under the North brand.

For more information about North Wine & Spirits visit their website.

Original article was published in Beverage Industry Blog