Start-Up Drinks Lab’s tips for business success

7. Find an equity investor

If your business needs money to grow, one of the options open to you is issuing new shares in exchange for investment.

A huge breakthrough for The Start-Up Drinks Lab was securing a six-figure investment from convenience store operator, Scotmid, in return for an equity stake in the business. It helped them develop and grow a unique range of products and services.

To make this investment possible, The Start-Up Drinks Lab enhanced its original consortium co-operative business model with an equity-based structure.

8. Win Unlocking Ambition support

The Start-Up Drinks Lab also took advantage of support through our Unlocking Ambition Challenge opens in a new window  – a £4 million Scottish Government fund that provides the best support to Scotland’s most talented, innovative and ambitious entrepreneurs to help them accelerate the growth of their businesses. This includes:

• A one-year programme of world-class executive education
• Executive leadership coaching
• Guidance on developing international connections through our GlobalScot network  opens in a new window
• A dedicated account team of digital, research and financial specialists

Each Unlocking Ambition company received a £25,000 grant award at the outset to invest into their start-up in whichever way they wished. The Start-Up Drinks Lab successfully secured a further £35,000 through the Unlocking Ambition Development Fund which supports innovative, high-impact growth projects.

9. Keep innovating

After setting up its initial bottling line and trial kitchens, The Start-Up Drinks Lab launched its own brand cola, tonic mixer, a non-alcoholic rose wine alternative, and developed a range of innovative services.

It now offers a complete ‘concept to shelf’ facility for producers of new drinks products, whether they are startups trying to get off the ground or established businesses aiming to expand their ranges.

Clients are supported at every step of a product’s lifecycle – from brand creation and recipe development, to small volume drinks production, bottling and labelling.

Recent diversification means the company also offers small-batch alcoholic drinks manufacturing that compliments their soft-drinks production line.

10. Build resilience to scale up

The Start-Up Drinks Lab has achievements to be proud of. Sainsburys stock its products, and they have industry giants such as Brewdog, Diageo and Hilton as clients. From this strong foundation, expansion plans include:

• Taking on another factory unit and adding to its production lines
• Introducing a drinks-canning machine
• Investing in faster small-batch bottling equipment

With continuing Brexit uncertainties, it’s vital that businesses act now to put themselves in the strongest possible position to adapt and thrive. So, we asked Hannah what impact Brexit might have on The Start-Up Drinks Lab?

“Restricted and more expensive supply of raw material will have a negative impact,” she said. “Looking for a positive, we hope our new canning line will attract some of the clients that currently use canning companies in Germany and Belgium due to restricted trade.

“We’ve already taken actions to prepare for Brexit including bulk buying glass bottles. And we’ve also accelerated our expansion into canning-facilities so we can adapt quickly to opportunities,” she added.

11. Invest in people, technology and markets

With expectations of doubling its staff and diversify to grow the business. Hannah and Craig are looking into offering shared distribution, particularly overseas, ecommerce site support and storage facilities.

The lack of small-batch drinks production facilities is not just an issue within Scotland. There’s a dearth of services internationally. So, looking ahead, Hannah and Craig have their sights set further afield.

Their longer-term plans feature geographical expansion into the rest of the UK, then beyond into Europe and even North Europe. And based on how quickly and effectively The Start-Up Drinks Lab has met and exceeded its initial business goals, its ambitions to broaden its horizons significantly look well within reach.