Prior to this partnership with Speciality Brands we worked with wholesalers for seasn and our first Sylva release was sold only direct to consumer and direct on allocation to Selfridges, Berry Bros & Rudd with select bars and restaurants creating an account and buying from us directly. 

We’re doing something nobody has done before with Sylva’s dark non-alc spirits and learning live which is why it was important to have a direct relationship with our customers. We don’t need to appeal to millions of people straightaway, we’ve instead nurtured relationships with specific customers.

Having full control is a great asset initially, but in the long run it makes sense for us and our aims to work with distribution experts Speciality Brands to represent our brands. seasn is stocked with many of their existing customers which makes for a seamless transition and we are very proud to be the first non-alcoholic products listed by Speciality Brands.

For those with nascent independent non-alcoholic brands, my advice would be to build a solid foundation of fans at both wholesale and outlet level before starting to pitch to distributors. Companies are becoming pickier with who they take on, so you need to create demand for your product in order to show a distributor a list of accounts who are stocking or want to stock your product.

On the retail side, proving out your business in independent retail first is an important step before jumping to supermarkets. It can be incredibly exciting for a young brand to be courted by a major grocer, but the easy part is getting it on the shelf – keeping it there is the real challenge.

Like approaching a distributor, you need your product to have a significant following before hitting supermarket shelves. If that’s the first place consumers see your product, they’re more likely to go for something they already know and trust. The knock-on effect is you lose your shelf space and normally you only get one chance in the major supermarkets.

To this day people still tell me about their first Seedlip experience and it was almost always in a bar or restaurant, never the supermarket. Think about where people can try and discover your products for a best first experience, crack that and supermarkets and scale will come.