Emlyn Gavin – Founder of hard kombucha brand, Bower – joins Hospopreneurs for an interview after their recent brand launch.
Inspired by category growth in non-alcoholic kombucha, Emlyn shares some insights on the possible trajectory of hard kombucha, along with Bower’s meticulous 28-day brewing process and 2024 goals, fueled by a capital raise.
The brand’s recent launch includes a Tasting Room in Manly, Sydney and a strategic focus on on-premise activations.
Talk me through the current trends in the kombucha category – what’s happening in Australia and overseas and where does Bower position itself in these markets as a hard kombucha?
6-7 years ago kombucha didn’t really exist in Australia. Since then, the non-alcoholic kombucha market in Australia has experienced remarkable growth, evolving from a $0 market to approximately AUD$350M annually in 2023. So it’s one of the fastest-growing segments in the beverage space largely due to it being a healthier alternative to soft drinks.
In the non-alcoholic kombucha market you have the early-mover brands like market-leader Remedy and Zentient Culture, as well as lots of new smaller brands like Two Boys Brew. However, there’s not really anyone that’s nailed alcoholic or ‘hard’ kombucha in Australia, and that’s where we see the opportunity for Bower to create this new category of functional alcohol – alcohol that actually does you some good. The hard kombucha market in the US is booming, with independent brands like JuneShine, Flying Embers and Jiant all growing rapidly.
Seeing the growth of the segment, larger players like PepsiCo, AB InBev, Sierra Nevada and Heineken are all making moves into the space. The US market is really proving that consumers are leaning into functional alcohol and as a health-conscious nation that enjoys a few drinks we think it’s a no-brainer that Australian’s will soon be asking for more out of their drinks too.
If you could have a few drinks and get some benefits at the same time, without sacrificing on flavour, why wouldn’t you try it?
Defining a new category is incredibly challenging – how does BOWER differentiate its alcoholic kombucha from more traditional alcoholic beverages?
We’ve all seen the growth in popularity of RTDs like hard seltzers, which is really due to them being low calorie and gluten free, even though all of them have a synthetic flavour profile. Even major beer producers have introduced low and no-alcohol options in an effort to compete with the new consumer trend of drinking ‘better-for-you’ beverages. But stripping out existing ingredients is not the same as adding beneficial ones. Neither of these options above are actually giving you any health benefits. They’re merely stripping back an existing product in the case of beer, or providing a low calorie, gluten free and tasteless option in the case of hard seltzers. Neither option is ‘better-for-you’, they’re really just ‘not-as-bad-for-you’.
Most RTDs on the market are typically made by mixing ethanol with carbonated water. Synthetic sweeteners and ‘natural flavours’ made in a lab are then added in, along with a helping of additives and preservatives.
What makes BOWER different is that our product is brewed. It’s double fermented with champagne yeast over 28 days and flavoured with only the finest quality fresh pressed organic ingredients — for example, we buy whole organic watermelons and juice them into our drinks. The end result is a beverage with an aroma, mouth-feel and flavour profile unlike anything on the market. No synthetic sweeteners, ‘natural’ flavours, additives or preservatives. No artificial anything. Just a delicious drink with the same health benefits as non-alcoholic kombucha. We retain all of the live cultures, organic acids, enzymes and antioxidants that non-alcoholic kombucha is known and loved for. So with Bower, you’re drinking something that actually does you some good!
Tell me about your recent activation and why you’re choosing an on-premise strategy? What is fuelling this decision – is there specific data you’re looking to?
We launched the brand with a pop-up Tasting Room in Manly, overlooking the Bower wave and marine reserve that inspired the brand. The rationale was simple – if you’ve got a great product, the best thing you can do is get people to try it. If they love it, they’ll tell their friends about it and you’ll kickstart that word-of-mouth growth. So the goal from the start was simple, make a product so good that people want to tell their friends about, then launch a Tasting Room and get as many people as possible to experience the brand and try the product.
Any product or service is really a marketplace – and you need both demand and supply for it to work. In order to grow, we wanted to create that awareness and demand early and then fulfill it with supply (i.e manufacturing and distribution outlets).
Regarding your upcoming capital raise, can you outline the specific objectives and milestones that BOWER aims to achieve with the raised funds?
The objective of the capital raise is to grow market awareness, production and distribution of the brand. We have 3 key results to achieve in 2024:
- Marketing: Dramatically increase brand and product awareness across Australia’s east coast by getting 10,000 net new people to try the product.
- Production: Sustainably scale annualised production capacity to 250,000 litres.
- Distribution: Secure and activate 150 stockists in 2024.
