Giving Coca Cola A Run For Their Money with Dalston's Soda Co & Fitch Brew Co

On episode #163 I welcome the founders from two of Britain's brightest food and beverage challenger brands: Dan Broughton, co-founder of Dalston's Soda Co & Emily Fitch-Deeley, co-founder of Fitch Brew Co

They are both part of a burgeoning scene. 10 years or so ago quality products weren’t as accessible. But since then there’s been a street food revolution, the evolution of gin, and the craft beer movement.

Both believe in making something with higher-quality, natural ingredients, and therefore less of the sugar or artificial sweeteners relied upon to flavour mainstream products.

The “Innocent and Fever-Tree effect”, has more recently led to a boom in investment in small, creative drinks companies and people have cottoned on to the fact that there is money to be made in small food and drink businesses if it’s done correctly.

Regular listeners to this show will have heard me champion the likes of Ugly Drinks, Pip & Nut, Jimmy's Iced Coffee, Rejuvenation Water, and more recently, Nix & Kix and Double Dutch Drinks.

Dan has nearly 20 years in the industry behind him, working for the likes of Cadbury's and Green & Black's whilst Emily has worked for Pernod and Brewdog.

I got together with Dan and Emily to chat about:

• The shift in perception of the benefits of alcoholic v non-alcoholic drinks
• Sustainability
• Transparency
• The health-driven benefits of non-alcoholic drinks
• Where Gen Z & Millenials meet - and their choice of drinks
• Roller Hockey - and dislocated shoulders

A massive thanks to all who entered our August contest to win a day out with myself and the team at Entrepreneur Summit 2019 in Bournemouth. You can still rate and review the show at anytime - something which I'm always eternally grateful for, and which always gets a shout-out from me.

Entrepreneur Summit 2019 is the centrepiece of the year for everything Screw It, Just Do It, a chance for the online community to get together physically. To see and hear some of our interviewee's in the flesh, to ask their own questions - instead of just mine - and share a once-a-year experience together. I've outdone myself with the line-up, you can see it in full here.

Back to today's show. I really enjoyed chatting with Dan and Emily about the challenges they face as challenger brands in the FMCG category and believe you will do so too.

Let's StartUp!