Name: Love Kombucha
Based: Thatcham, Berkshire
Website: www.lovekombucha.co.uk
We launched our first Love Kombucha drink into the market in September 2013. At which point I was brewing kombucha in the spare room of my very modestly-sized house.
We are now stocked in around 100 independent retail outlets around the UK and will soon be available across London in Planet Organic and Whole Foods and 45 branches of NutriCentre.
Within the first 12 months of trading we outgrew the spare room and have now moved into a 1,600 sq ft warehouse and office unit. We were able to brew 900 litres a month at home and have now scaled our brewing facility with 4 x 1,000 litre custom-built fermenting tanks enabling us to brew 6,400 litres a month.
We have had to purchase (and get a licence for) a forklift truck.
We obtained private investment of £50,000 towards expanding our manufacturing operation and hired a full-time member of staff to work with us in the warehouse.
This month, we achieved our organic certification and launched a 250ml Grab & Go size bottle into the market. We have exported to Sweden and continue to receive enquiries from around Europe from people looking to buy our product or wanting to come and view our set up so that they can emulate it in their own country.
We are working hard attending both trade and consumer shows throughout the year to spread the word about Love Kombucha. It’s been a very exciting rollercoaster, and we have only just begun.
Melanie Millin is the founder and chief brewer of Love Kombucha
