Seoul Tonic’s founder personally delivered product to 40 Woolworths Metro stores

Seoul Tonic was meant to launch into Woolworths Metro stores across Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales on December 18 but was delayed after the strike.The Korean-inspired beverage is already stocked by independent retailers as well as big retailers such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS and Amazon –  but the brand founder Sophie Hood was determined to ensure Seoul Tonic made its supermarket debut in time for the festive season.“Metro, by design, is meant to be more premium and be in really high traffic metro areas… A customer that might come and visit that store seven times during the week, – pop in, pop out – versus a supermarket shopper [who] might go once for the week,” Hood told Inside Retail. “That’s their whole strategy and that aligns perfectly with Seoul Tonic. We’re an impulse or convenience purchase – you don’t think you need us, until you do need us,” she added.Hood, based in Sydney, took matters into her own hands and decided she would personally deliver stock to 40 Woolworths Metro locations across New South Wales.Building entrepreneurial spirit While a brand, much less a CEO, delivering products to Woolworths Metro’s network of stores is uncommon, it was reminiscent of Seoul Tonic’s early days when Hood would go door-to-door trying to find retailers to stock her product.“I just started slinging it into random retailers in Bondi that I went to myself. My favourite delis, my favourite premium grocery stores, my favourite gyms. And it just started going off,” Hood recalled.The difference this time around was Seoul Tonic had secured a fast-tracked contract with Woolworths Metro that was meant to have the product on shelves in time for summer socialising when customers are looking for a hangover cure or fast hydration.The team at Woolworths Metro asked if she could do direct-to-store deliveries knowing that she couldn’t outsource.“I quite literally canceled every single meeting I had… Some of them were big investor meetings, Hood shared.“I borrowed my boyfriend’s car and then started doing trips to the warehouse and one by one delivered to almost 40 Metro stores all the way from Parramatta to Avalon to the North Shore to Maroubra,” she added.The first day of deliveries included the Woolworths Metro Parramatta location where Hood had to work out how to carry 30 kilograms of product and documentation to the nearby train station store underneath a Westfield.Relationships are everythingAccording to Hood, the biggest unlock was when she could introduce herself and Seoul Tonic to a Woolworths Metro store manager.“A store manager has a little bit more sway over positioning, where to put it on shelf, and then that’s when I could start benefiting from it and form a relationship by explaining my story,” Hood elaborated.“For the stores where you have amazing placement, sales are just so significantly different from when you’re on the bottom of a shelf in an aisle,” she continued. “We’ve got some initial sales figures just from being in the store for five days and the Bondi Beach store, where the manager let me put up a stand – the sales are ridiculous.” By distributing Seoul Tonic herself, Hood said that store managers were able to put a face to the brand – which impacted the staff’s relationship with the brand and in turn influenced customer behaviour.“My biggest lesson is that you can’t be ‘too good’ for anything; so you’re the founder, you’re the CEO, you also have to be the sales rep, and you have to be the face of the brand,” stated Hood.  “I think that’s something I want to remember as I keep building a business, no matter what happens with the business, I never want to forget that.”.Seoul Tonic is on track to launch into Woolworths Metro stores in Victoria and Queensland in mid-January through distribution centres, the conventional channel into Woolworths stores, but Hood is reconsidering Seoul Tonic’s route.“Now that I’ve had this experience in New South Wales I’m tempted to fly to Queensland and Victoria and do a little bit of a road trip around the stores and just introduce myself and do a bit of the same thing – it’s kind of given me that spark back,” Hood concluded.