Six years ago, Chris Cotton embarked on a journey to disrupt the F&B space, by launching Really Juice, a range of natural citrus juices in convenient pouches and help thirsty consumers and foodies mix their cocktails or prepare their favourite dishes quickly and easily
Inside Small Business (ISB), IFMCG’s sibling, sat down with Cotton about his entrepreneural journey and his success with the juice brand.
ISB: What was the inspiration behind the launch of Really Juice?
CC: Returning to Australia after living overseas, we wanted to bring to market a juice as close to nature as possible that could be on hand for any occasion, so you need never run out. We determined to provide a great alternative to concentrated, reconstituted, diluted or imported juice. We started sourcing all our juice locally and packing it into foil pouches.
After all, what’s more refreshing on a hot day than a gin and tonic, lime and soda, or blood orange with sparkling spring water or lemonade? We know how often people run out of lemons or limes and how costly they become when they are not in season. We put our minds to it, given how thirsty we always seem to be, and created pouches of lemon, lime and blood orange juice so you can enjoy a gin and tonic or lime and soda anytime using our juices at a consistent price. We also wanted to offer a long shelf life and our process allows for a ‘Best Before’ date of 18 months from the time of manufacture.
We were motivated to be able to offer a product that is great to have on hand for cool drinks, cocktails, marinating meat, adding to salad dressings or sauces, or when cooking Asian or seafood dishes. Just replacing the tonic in a gin and tonic with soda and adding 30 mls of blood orange creates a refreshing summer cocktail. Lime juice is an essential ingredient for a margarita or mojito and so the list goes on.
ISB: What has been the biggest challenge in getting the business up and running, and how did you overcome it?
CC: The biggest challenge as a small supplier is to gain market coverage. We made a decision early on not to supply the major supermarkets, as we wanted to supply a quality product to our customers consistently without the business pressures of dealing with the majors. Hence, we found specialty distributors in each state to supply to independent supermarkets and specialty stores such as gourmet food stores, fruit and vegetable shops, fishmongers etc., where shoppers are more likely to browse and are looking for those kinds of products.
Beyond our distributor network countrywide, we are also the proud suppliers of pouched juices to Harris Farm Markets in NSW and Queensland. Harris Farm Markets offers us an ideal route to markets, as they specialise in the supply of a large range of fresh fruit and vegetables and speciality grocery products through their network of more than 26 stores.
shops and foodservice suppliers, so this is an area of distribution we have been exploring, with some successes to date. We need to continue to support our distributors and encourage them to place Really Juice front and centre when promoting their ranges. We have found offering the salespeople incentives to increase distribution is a very effective way to boost revenue and will continue to promote ourselves in this manner. There is also an opportunity to export, and we are working with parties in China, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Our products are already available in Singapore through that nation’s specialist wholefoods retailer Little Farms Group.
This article first appeared in issue 43 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine.
