Beverage Startups
CLUO Beauty Drink Infused with Moringa
Source: CLUO website
So what is CLUO? Who is CLUO target market?
CLUO is the UK’s 1st Health & Beauty drink made from the Superfood Moringa from the Moringa tree. Moringa exists in the UK in the form of powders, capsules, and teas bags, but until now there has not been a ready-to-drink beverage made from Moringa.
The essence of CLUO is that if you put quality good stuff in, you get quality good stuff out. Its not rocket science. Because CLUO is jam packed with minerals, vitamins, anti oxidants and all of your essential amino acids, if you put this into your body, your body will love you back. It has everything you need to give you beauty inside and outside. In addition to this, we have added Vit C and Zinc, which are both proven to contribute to the maintenance of healthy skin. This is why we say “Beauty Radiates from Within”.
The typical CLUO target market would be ladies who are any of these: 25+ female, into health & wellness, affluent, takes vitamins, professionals, goes to the gym, City focus, image conscious.
You have three different flavours. Do you have any plans to introduce new flavors? Which flavour is your favorite?
We are in new product development at the moment and we have another range in the pipeline that we are going to launch at Specialty & Fine Food Fair in September. Can’t tell you what it is yet, but we’re really excited about it so watch this space. My favourite is the Mango as I’m a tropical girl.
Why beauty and healthy drinks are getting more popular among consumers these days?
People are realising that you can put something onto your skin if you want to, to make you look better, but the best way to do it is to put the goodness into your body and let it shine outwards. The beauty of CLUO (pardon the pun) is that even though it’s not a cure of any kind, it solves many problems simply because our bodies crave the minerals and vitamins etc and when it doesn’t get it, it doesn’t function properly, like a car with no oil.
Why did you use moringa as a functional ingredient?
My other hat that I wear is that of CEO of The Jarrett Foundation an international children’s charity. When we were working in Jamaica, I stumbled across Moringa being sold in a local market. I had never heard of it. When I was told about it being known as the “Miracle Tree” and was told about its amazing properties, I decided to buy a bag as I was looking for something to help me stay healthy as I was recovering from Cancer.
When I got back I would boil the leaves every day until I got fed up, as it became a chore. I just wanted to buy a bottle. I searched high and low, but there was no such drink. So I created one.
So what are your achievements so far with CLUO?
The first day of the business we won an Award at Food Matters Live 2015. We won “Highly Commended” for Innovation. We were voted for by 15 global companies including Tesco, Pepsico and Unilever.
Nowadays, social responsibility is a big thing. Tell us about CLUO charity program.
As mentioned earlier, I also run The Jarrett Foundation an international children’s charity. When I went to The Gambia a few years ago I visited some schools and I was shocked to see that there were school that had absolutely no resources. In fact they had no furniture either. Some classes would be held outside under a tree. Those lucky enough to have furniture, children were often sitting 5 and 6 to a bench made for 2.
I started with my daughters school and asked if you have anything that you are throwing away please will you contact me so that I can ship it to schools in The Gambia. Well fast forward 6 years and we now collect school furniture from the London boroughs and we have kitted out 136 schools in The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Jamaica. Furthermore we have saved 70,000 tones of school furniture and resources from going into UK landfill.
A percentage of every bottle sold will go to the charity to be able to ship more furniture to help the education of disadvantaged children in developing countries.
What the future holds for CLUO? Do you have a vision where you would like to see your brand 5 years from now?
I would like CLUO to be a global brand. We have already had enquiries from Kuwait, Oman, Dubai, India and as far as Mongolia. In the UK I would like it to be listed in the fine food stores, health stores, gyms, chemists etc. so that it is easily accessible to this growing market.
You have fulfilled your dream and defeated Cancer. You could be an inspiration for many people. However, who was your inspiration?
I always wanted to run a business again. I used to run one back in the 80’s and then I had kids, got diagnosed, started the charity etc. but it was still something that I wanted to go back to. After beating Cancer I decided that life was too short and that I was not going to just talk about things any more, I was going to get up and try something. I had this bucket list. First stop start a charity. After running the charity for 5 years I decided this would be a good time to start the business so that I could make the charity more sustainable. So for me its really cool that it ticks 2 boxes: – I get to run a business again (tick) and make money to help lots of kids globally (tick) result!
Do you have any tips for our drinkpreneurs?
Get yourself lots and lots of advise re manufacturing. If you get it wrong it will cause you unnecessary time and money to unpick and many sleepless nights just to get back to the start. As we found out, but that’s another story for another day.
For more information visit CLUO Beauty Drink website.
