THE EARLY YEARS: JULY 2010

The stress - and blood pressure! - is showing! Now established at Carr Taylor Vineyard it was time to take things to the next level. I’d built sales via 4 UK distributors who were taking half my margin and up to 60 days to pay. I was scraping by.

Strategy: abandon fruit to flavour, using teas only for greater stability and their complex taste notes; energise and modernise label using Gaia’s Organic’s initials to relaunch as GO! Kombucha; and secure overseas distribution (in Italy, Holland and Norway) to enable immediate payment.

All were achieved within cash flow, but a setback meant having to stop using our on site well water and unique USP due to the prospect of fracking looming in the UK, starting in Balcombe just 50 miles away…

How less fraught might I have been had I some experience and wisdom to call on? As the pioneer of kombucha in the UK, much that I was attempting in scaling up production had no tried or tested outcome…

I was grateful just to make it through each day, let alone 20yrs. But make it I did, and in retrospect I can appreciate what a gift kombucha has been, with a life force all its own that almost feels connected to the many meaningful coincidences/synchronicities that have guided and aided me along the way.

How to repay that gift that has helped many people in many ways, and which fuelled, coloured and gave meaning and purpose to my life; the search for which led me to a boat house in ‘03?

So I’m reaching out to other homegrown authentic UK brands who may be experiencing similar growing pains, be it to do with brewing or managing cash flow, and to offer free 30min calls dispensing practical advice where I can; if only to help others avoid the various pitfalls that set me back over the years, causing untold stress and trauma.

Most UK-registered companies that set up to make kombucha dissolve within 3yrs. I may not be the white knight riding over the hilltop on a stallion to rescue your biz, but where I can advise, offer practical advice and make a difference, I will try.

For details on booking a free 30min chat, private message or email me at info@gokombucha.co.uk