How to build a Drinks brand?

Distill Ventures has openly shared their ‘Five Bricks’ framework to create a strong business and brand. They were originally established to support the world’s best entrepreneurs and its proprietary ‘Accelerator’ supports businesses with a unique combination of investment, expertise and coaching, helping entrepreneurs and their brands go further, faster. Here is some of their insight on building a drinks brand…

Dan Gasper, one of the founders of Distill Ventures, was the person responsible for the presentation about what entrepreneurs need in order to build a brand and a business that will last. Distill Ventures portfolio includes brands such as Seedlip, Starward Whisky and Westward American Single Malt Whiskey amongst others.

The ‘Five Bricks’ required for a drinks brand business can be seen on the graphic below, with the middle three ‘bricks’ being the spine of a strong business whilst the two ‘bricks’ on the side being what is required for success.

Below is a summary of each ‘brick’ section, however I’d suggest anyone interested to see the full presentation deck available via the link at the bottom of this blog post:

• Information about your business such as cost of goods, margins, sales, forecasts, etc
• Good cash flow management as ‘cash is king’
• The right professional support
• Manage your Investors ongoing
• Strong and scalable supply chain

• Self development is key
• Know your strengths and bring in the support required via internal (your team) or external (consultants) means as required
• Look out for smarts and experience from your mentors and investors, not just cash

• Look for local support
• Focus on learning what makes your product sell in bars and stores
• Love your distributor
• Add value and provide great support
• Price yourself for success
• Be generous and ensure everyone makes money down the price chain

• Create a stand out idea
• Combine a great liquid with a great name
• Packaging is key to bring the brand story to life

• The new world is about conversation and being interesting
• Interesting makes you stand out from the crowd

The full presentation is available on the Distill Ventures website – click here for the link.

For reference also from Distill Ventures – ‘How to start a spirits business‘