Buy one get one free?

Reiterating what Henry said, time is flying by.... so at the moment my contributions to the blog are suffering! So I've vowed to sort it out and this should be the last time that I leave it a week before updating you all.

So following on from what Henry said we made it up to Liverpool (I wasn't that late) and on Monday had an interesting meeting with a small company that specialises in bringing new alcoholic drinks to the major buyers in the 'on-trade' (anywhere that serves alcohol for consumption on site eg pubs/ bars). So we discussed our product and once again it looks like we have a convert to the joys of Real Fruit Cocktails. The conclusion was that we did truly have a different offering to everything else on the market and that some of the bigger groups may be interested.

He was meeting a large national distributor the next day and agreed to take the product along to see what they thought. Their conclusion was that it really could sell, but that it was too costly for them (and their clients). This was not far off what we had expected given that what we have produced is something that is truly different and more premium than anything else that they currently sold.

Undetered we have decided to focus on clients that specialise in niche natural products. Once the market understands that a real fruit cocktail in a bottle is expensive to make (and therefore buy) we will take it back to this national distributor.

We've also begun to focus our efforts on the off-trade (the supermarkets and the off-licenses). After much deliberation we have picked one supermarket and are going to progress with attempting to get on to their shelves so that people can enjoy the real fruit cocktail at home! If you want the product at home we have an interim solution that involves us delivering it or couriering it to people.... but this is not the long term solution! Incidentally if you want details of this please let me or Henry know (rupert@muddlercocktails.com or henry@muddlercocktails.com).

After we have had such positive feedback from our first customers and the drinking public we decided that it was time to get our product out to the masses (and those beyond our London foothold) so we've decided to push on with these expansion plans. Whether they'll work or not time will tell (and it'll take us a few months to finalise details with either an off-trade or on-trade large scale supplier). What's also clear is that you wont be expecting to see us on a buy one get one free deal in your local supermarket.... the margins for us are very slim and if they are expecting us to fund many (or any) of those deals then it might be a step to far for us. Its early days though... lets see what happens.

We also spent some of last week back on the roads and have some additional bars to add to the current list. I'll publish a full list of pubs/ bars over the next couple of days, but the good news is that my local The Florence (in Herne Hill) is now offering me (and others) a Muddler Cocktail on an evening out!

Some more updates soon... but must go now as there are some repeat orders in that need to be fulfilled.

Talking of buy one get one free deals... Wessex House is offering buy one Muddler get one free before Midnight on a Friday night.

And my new (Aussie) housemate (Ben) wont stop asking for a mention on the blog. Something about attributing our success to his arrival... I'm not convinced that grabbing the occasional bottle of Muddler from our fridge is helping... but if it stops him talking about English weather....
I say grab me a Muddler whilst you are there.

Another week flys by

I'm not quite sure what happened to this week. One minute it was Monday the next it was Friday.

After the initial success of our cold calling on pubs and bars, this week we decided to start looking at other ways we can get some real momentum going. This meant a few days back in the office putting potential proposals together for the big breweries and pub groups.

After a couple of days of staring at the computer it was welcome relief on Thursday to be back out there selling which resulted in another 4 venues:

Market Place - Just off the Kings road
The Durell - Fulham Road
Fest Bar - Fulham Road
Nolans Freehouse - SW8

As you can see we are starting to get a good spread across south London, but we know that we need even more than this if things are really going to take off. And as luck would have it that is exactly what we got on Friday.

My girlfriend, Jenny, was up in Liverpool for a wedding and was dropping off a couple of cases to her Dad for us. His business partner was with him at the time and asked how things were going. When Jenny told him that we were looking to approach some of the breweries he piped up 'I know someone whose been in the industry for years and sells to all the major brewers do you want us to see if he's interested in having a meeting?'

To cut a long story short Rupert and I are heading up to Liverpool this afternoon for a 10.30am meeting with this guy tomorrow morning!

So next week is shaping up to be another very interesting one. That's if Rupert ever gets here to pick me up. He's currently an hour late. But it's meant I've had time to write this and see the end of the open. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon...

Those initial Muddler venues...

Over the last week and a half the most frequently asked question has been... where can we get these Muddler Cocktail things?

Henry and I have been really excited by the initial reaction to Muddler Cocktails. We've been doing some cold calling and getting out there to see what pub landlord/ bar owners think of the drink. The feedback has been really positive, as soon as people try the drink, they are enjoying the taste and signing up to stock the product.

We've hit the streets and on Friday night we the product being bought by people unrelated to our group grabbing a Muddler... and going back for another one. It was great to see and is proof that the cocktail revolution is starting!

Muddlers is currently available in the following pubs/ bars/ clubs, so grab one today:

Greenwich (SE10)
Oliver's Bar

Hammersmith (W6)
Raven

East Dulwich (SE22)
The Palmerston
The Vale

Herne Hill (SE24)
Pullens

Clapham (SW11)
Project Orange
Wessex House
Out of the Blue

Borough (SE1)
Goldsmiths
The Miller
Horse

Honor Oak Park (SE27)
Tapastry

St Ives
The Tap Room

Guildford
Jo Clarks

Private Members Bars
County Constitution Club, St Albans
Mediacom, London

Gav and Kellys Wedding with a guest appearance from Muddler Cocktails!

Well it’s almost a week since we last wrote a blog which shows how busy we have been!

The end of last week finished with Gav and Kellys wedding. It was a beautiful day, on the coast in Suffolk with the most amazing views out over the sea and for the first time in weeks, fittingly, the sun shone.

We always knew that this was going to be an emotionally charged day and I think from the moment Kelly stepped across the threshold into the service everyone had a lump in their throat. It was such a great occasion. Gav was dressed in a white suit and looked the business and Kelly was simply stunning, but this wasn't a stuffy, formal affair. It was relaxed just like they are and although it was serious and meant so much, Gav couldn't help breaking into his cheeky chappy smile every now and again!

After the service there were some reception drinks overlooking the bay and Gav and Kelly had agreed to serve Muddler Cocktails as one of the drinks! This was going to be a very telling moment for us as it was an immediate way to gauge a reaction to the drink to a wide and diverse audience.

To begin with most people opted for the glass of red or white wine, with only a few people who new what the other drink was, going for a Muddler’s. But the few that did take the Muddler’s quickly created a buzz around it and before long we could see the drink spreading throughout the whole wedding party.

The feedback was fantastic. It tasted like a real cocktail, the alcohol flavour was strong but complemented the flavour of the fruits, it was refreshing and not too sweet, and ultimately it was very drinkable.

It was great news and so good to see people with our drink in their hands enjoying it. By the end it was going so fast the waiters were coming out with it in the bottles so people could top themselves up.

Here are some photos that Dee took of the Muddler experience…

The last piece of evidence for the success of Muddlers is below. The Geography lot were all staying in the most amazing place called the house in the clouds. On the morning of the wedding some people had fancied a Muddler before the service but all the glasses had been used the night before. Not letting this stop them Rob came up with a solution. Below you can see Rob handing out Muddlers in Ice cream glasses. Not quite the image we had imagined for Muddler Cocktails but it still tasted great!

What a week in the land of Muddler....

Well just when you are wrapping up from a major week another one is lined up...

What a week last week was:
Monday - We hear that our bottle production is complete and all is well. I spend all night building the website with our designer. So far your feedback on the website has been great. So once again we must thank our designer Alex Smee for putting up with Henry and I (but mostly Henry) as we come up with different and obscure ways for us to present our information. The website is now largely complete, but we have a list of things (from small typos to re-designing the blog section) to do to improve it... so expect to see some slight improvements over the next few weeks. If you have any thoughts please feel free to email me on rupert@muddlercocktails.com and we'll see what we can do.

Tuesday - The stock makes it through the flooding, rain and arrives at our warehouse. This is the first time we get to touch/ feel a finished product. Henry has written about this a bit... but this truely was a great feeling. Lunch is enjoyed with a Muddler for the first (but not the last) time with my lunch. It tastes great and completely as we had expected.

Wednesday - All our sales material is gathered together, the sales pitch is rehearsed in full with each other and our Muddler Polo shirts:

Then we hit the streets and started spreading the message of the joys of Muddler Cocktails. It is quite a truly odd experience for us as Henry and I have never done cold calling before and nerves were high. The first couple of bars were not great starts as neither pub would entertain the concept of trying the drink. We re-evaluated and ploughed on, trying to find the right person in each bar… no sales but some info about when to call and who to speak to.

Thursday – we hit the road with a vengeance, tackling the Greenwich area. The first pub took a case to try, the second bar bought a couple of cases to see how it went down. Oliver’s Bar is a small underground (literally) bar which specialises in live music:

http://www.lemonrock.com/oliversjazzbar

So we will catch up with them in a week or so to see how it is going.

More for this posting to come soon…

As we are now spending more time out of the office and my evenings are spent stuffing promotional mailouts (or soon out promoting the joys of Muddlers to the masses) writing the Blog becomes something that will have to be squeezed into the early mornings or late at night. As we've said before... it acts as therapy for us (and you lot seem to be reading it) so we will definitely keep on publishing updates.

Anyway, got to go

The big day is upon us and I'm not there.....

Today the product arrived but I wasn't there! I had got up, got dressed and was just about to leave when I thought, you know what I'm just not up to this......

Somehow I've managed to get a cold in the middle of summer (although looking out the window it's not hard to see how) I feel awful, my head's blocked, my nose is blocked, my ears are blocked, I feel like I'm walking around with a fish tank over my head. It's the fourth day I've felt like this. Anyway, just as I was about to leave I decided stay at home and rest, leaving all the fun to Rupert, so that hopefully tomorrow morning I will be back to my old self and raring to go for our first Sales meeting!

Seeing as I couldn't be there, and knowing how much it meant to me, Rups took some pics for us to show how the day went and here they are.....

Luckily Rups isn't a small lad, so shifting 7 pallets of stock wasn't too much of a bother (although he did get a bit of a sweat on as you can see, nice!)

But you quickly understand why when you look at how much he was shifting....

That looks like a lot of stock to me!

After all of this exertion Rupert obviously needed to cool down and relax and what better way than to crack open a deliciously refreshing bottle of Muddler Cocktails and pour it over ice...

hmmmmmmmmm that looks good to me!

I am sooooooooo excited about tomorrow. The last 6 months will have come together and finally we will be on the road selling. It's bloody nerve racking but it doesn't matter how tough it gets we are going to sell night and day to make this work. So here's to the hard work beginning!

Our first meeting is in London Bridge and Rups has even said he might come on the back of my bike which will be hilarious. I never thought I'd see the day that Rups stepped onto my bike, but needs must! Only slight problem is I'm not sure the spare helmet is going to fit, Rups has a very big head (which for some reason he's very proud of?!), we might have to cut out a huge pumpkin instead.

Oh yeah and one last thing. Rups appears to have made a mistake in his previous blog'Wimbledon Fever'. For those of you who know us I'm sure you were just as confused, so let me clarify things. Rupert did NOT win the Tennis, he won A game which made it 3-1 in games to me!